No one wants to be struck by lightning! Unless it feels good.
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be struck by lightning? Ask a tree!
Lightning strikes kill millions of trees each year, but SOME benefit from it. Huh?
Dr. Evan Gora and team at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies surveyed lightning strikes in a tropical Panamanian forest.
Results? When lightning strikes the tall Dipteryx oleifera tree, it survives while its competitors don’t. Plus, a strike kills seventy-eight percent of a parasitic vine that grows on the tree!
While lightning usually kills, for some trees it’s a shot in the arm.
It’s an important reminder: every cloud has a silver lightning!
Reference: Gora, E. M., Muller‐Landau, H. C., Cushman, K. C., Richards, J. H., Bitzer, P. M., Burchfield, J. C., Narváez, P., & Yanoviak, S. P. (2025b). How some tropical trees benefit from being struck by lightning: Evidence for Dipteryx oleifera and other large‐statured trees. New Phytologist, 246(4), 1554–1566. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70062