The Tonka Bean Tree Can Wield Lightning to Defeat Enemies

Where most trees live in fear of being struck by lightning, there exists one tree in the muggy jungles of Panama that embraces the lightning. It absorbs the strikes and even uses the lightning as a weapon to turn nearby trees to ash.

According to a study published in New Phytologist, scientists tracked lightning strikes around tonka bean trees (Dipteryx oleifera) in the Barro Colorado Nature Monument over five years using drone surveillance and high-tech antenna arrays. They found that of nearly 100 trees fried by lightning, over half died.

But every single tonka bean tree struck lived to tell the tale. Not only that, but they actually got stronger after surrounding themselves with the charred corpses of parasitic vines and competition that got cooked in the blast zone, nourishing themselves on all the sunlight that was freed up by eliminating their neighboring competition.

This Tonka Bean Tree Wields Lightning to Defeat Its Enemies

The tree’s size might have something to do with it. They’re 30 percent taller and 50 percent wider in the crown than others, which explains why they get struck so often. But unlike normal trees, the tonka bean tree seems to have evolved an architecture that can absorb the strikes. The payoff? A fourteen-fold increase in reproductive success. That’s right—more seeds, more trees, more tiny lightning lords on the rise.

According to forest ecologist and study lead author Evan Gora, “There’s a quantifiable, detectable hazard of living next to Dipteryx oleifera.” And on top of that, whenever the Tonka got struck, it “consistently showed no damage.”

“It seems to have an architecture that is potentially selecting to be struck more often,” Dr. Gora told the New York Times. It’s almost like…like it wants to be struck by lightning. If you’re a tree and this tree moves in next door, start updating your will, because it’s safe to say that the Tonka bean tree is maybe the most hardcore tree on Earth.