Comment on Palms

Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• Thorry84@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  No such thing as a tree? So you mean all those binary trees I’ve been inverting have been a lie? My whole world is shattered.

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• flora_explora@beehaw.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Indeed, it simply is not a phylogenetic categorization but a physio-ecological one. Tree, like shrub, liana, herbaceous, woody/non-woody are all terms solely used to place plants into functional groups based on how they grow. None of these has to do with their taxonomy.

  So the question is, what is a tree and is having secondary growth necessary to be one? Because monocots, like palms are, don’t have secondary growth, they use some workarounds. But why should that matter in the definition of a tree? I don’t know. So yeah, a coconut palm should be considered a tree. But it hasn’t got to do with phylogenetics (like explained in the article you linked).

  Also, millennia ago there have been vast forests of lycopods!! Just imagine huge trees that are actually spikemosses. So why shouldn’t a palm not be a tree?

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  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    my definition of a tree is basically “a plant consisting of a single pillar-like robust trunk”.

    most plants can be trees, especially ones that generally grow as bushes, if they are prodded into doing so by pruning and whatever other pressures, and there are some plants that seem to flip a coin to decide whether they grow into bushes or trees.

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• MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Of plants native to the Canary Islands, wood independently evolved at least 38 times!

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• dohpaz42@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Uou forgot about the myth of vegetables.

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• Etterra@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Except that yes there is. It’s just not a scientific term. Same with fish.

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• fossilesque@mander.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  …ifas.ufl.edu/…/are-palm-trees-really-trees/

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  • GlennMagusHarvey@mander.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    A local park ranger I know likes to remark that our state tree is a grass. (I’m in Florida.)

    But I’d say that’s also inaccurate. IMO, grasses are in the family Poaceae, and palms are in the family Arecaceae. I guess one could remark that our state tree is a commelinid…but I don’t think tourists would get as much of a kick out of that.

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  • flora_explora@beehaw.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Typical trees belong to a group of plants called dicots

    Whaaaat? Swiftly ignoring all gymnosperms? The temperate zones are full of trees that aren’t dicots, or even angiosperms! Focusing on some biological traits that aren’t crucial to the definition of a tree sounds like the author already likes their neat categories and wants to retroactively justify them…

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• Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Halt! I’m here to check the expiry date of your facts!

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• criitz@reddthat.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Neat read, thanks

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