Trees with “Crown Shyness” Mysteriously Avoid Touching Each Other

You're like President Trump; once someone gets under your skin you just keep attacking. 

I think we don't want to go here. I vote for keeping posts politically neutral.

Please cut the political crap.

I'll  rephrase it. He like a dog with a tasty bone. Once he's annoyed by someone he won't let it go. ;-)

I'll  rephrase it. He like a dog with a tasty bone. Once he's annoyed by someone he won't let it go. ;-)

Thanks!

I'll  rephrase it. He like a dog with a tasty bone. Once he's annoyed by someone he won't let it go. ;-)

I just want to see if you can explain what I'm posting about.

But again & again you just offer cheap insults when actually asked to defend yourself intellectually.

For those who aren't familiar with the work on plant intelligence of Cleve Baxter (the inventor of the polygraph) here's a little taste. 

Yes of course I know that our friends in the skeptic/debunker community have pronounced this work to be invalid... What psi work have they NOT suggested is invalid?

There is a little intro to his work in this video from 33:12 - 37:30 for those who want a short peek at what he found. I would suggest reading the book if you find this of interest. There is a lot more meat to the story than is covered in the short video clip.

Yes I know, the video is not of great quality. But as I have mentioned before, it was created as a course planning tool, not an general purpose online video resource. I would just rather not take the time to keyboard the information on this topic into this forum. And in any case,, some might find it a nice change of pace to watch something rather than to read it. : )

If you are not so inclined,, just skip it all together.

What does the Ph in PhD stand for?

I'm assuming by your question you think the Ph part of PhD refers to the disipline of philosophy. The origin of this degree coincides with the Greek rival period of the late 18th through early 19th centuries. The Ph part means "love of wisdom" again a reference to the ancient Greeks. It has nothing to do the discipline of philosophy. The word Doctorate can be used also.

I'm assuming by your question you think the Ph part of PhD refers to the disipline of philosophy. The origin of this degree coincides with the Greek rival period of the late 18th through early 19th centuries. The Ph part means "love of wisdom" again a reference to the ancient Greeks. It has nothing to do the discipline of philosophy. The word Doctorate can be used also.

So philosophy means "Love of Wisdom"....but in this case it doesn't refer at all to the discipline of philosophy....ok....

[Laird]

I know I'm resurrecting a very old thread, but I happened to come across a relevant article that might be of interest.

[Edit: And now I see that these theories were already briefly mentioned in the article in the OP. Oops. Redundant post.]

Here are a couple of theories on the "crown shyness" phenomena from the IFL site's 2021-06-15 article by Rachel Funnell:

Crown Shyness: Why Some Trees Avoid Touching Leaves, Creating A Fractured Canopy.

First, the Abrasion Hypothesis, with wind as a contributing factor:

[S]ome believe that crown shyness is the end result of tree tips catching and snapping on those of their neighbors. The constant abrasion of growth nodules and bud tissue would explain why the trees' ability to grow laterally is clipped, and it’s thought that a tree's sensitivity to this mechanism of growth control is dependent on the species. The wind is also a significant factor in this instance, as heightened weather conditions will increase the likelihood of trees touching tips as they sway.

Second, "Phytochromes and shade-avoidance":

Plants and trees contain proteins that are sensitive to light known as photoreceptors, and one of the most common is phytochrome. This photoreceptor is able to detect red light which sunlight is abundant in, and research into many species has found that plants are capable of altering their growth as a means of shade avoidance. Through this mechanism, it would stand to reason that gaps could appear in the canopy as when crowding occurs the trees' outermost branches will receive less light as the branches of other trees cast shade.