Fun Fact Friday: Dominant Trees & Branch Growth. Did I Just Compare Tree Stress to Clueless?

What started as a quest to answer the question “why do trees have different bark?” turned into a deep dive into the branch autonomy theory which led me to arguments against the application of this theory.

In diving into those arguments, I discovered something far more interesting to my 90s rom com-loving mindset.

Let’s start with the article that made me realize that forests are really just high school for trees.

In Douglas G. Sprugal’s “When branch autonomy fails: Milton’s Law of resource availability and allocation” article from Tree Physiology, Volume 22, Issue 15-16, November 2002, the summary concludes that a branch’s ability to fix carbon is not the only factor at play when it comes to branch health. (1) Especially when that branch is under stress.

The evidence (1) suggests that the allocation of resources as well as stressors on the tree as a whole play a large role in how healthy a branch is.

Branches tend to deal with stress better if they are on trees that have also experienced stress. Conversely, branches on trees that have not experienced stress aren’t quite as well-equipped.

For some reason, this surfaced 90s girlie movies where the spoiled rich girl has to learn how to be kind by being sent to a boarding school.

Think about the rich, popular “in crowd” in those movies, like Alicia Silverstone’s character Cher in Clueless. They’ve never experienced any hardships and when suddenly faced with anything other than easy-peasy privilege, they totally freak. I mean, Cher has a full breakdown and basically tries to restart her entire life.

Meanwhile, branches on trees that have experienced less access to resources, tend to have an easier time facing the same stressors.

When Brittany Murphy (who has already gone through the challenges of starting a new school, getting rejected by Elton, and losing out on the guy she really wanted) is told that Josh is actually in love with Cher, she bounces right back.

Though the dominant tree will likely always remain dominant (Cher will always be the prettiest and most popular) the less dominant tree shows greater resilience in the face of hardship.

And so (as Cher ends her debate about immigration in the movie) in conclusion, forests are basically the high school of the natural world. Right?

DG Sprugel

Physiology, Volume 22, Issue 15-16 (2002), Pages 1119-1124

When branch autonomy fails: Milton’s Law of resource availability and allocation

https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/22.15-16.1119

https://academic.oup.com/treephys/article/22/15-16/1119/1633838?login=false