Suicidal Trees

 Suicidal Trees

Many of us have heard of the Suicide Squad, but suicidal trees were an entirely different story! While walking through the squishy forest floor along the One Mile Trail, Dr. Ganesan stopped us and regaled us with a fascinating tale. 

Certain plants exhibit a unique flowering behaviour known as monocarpy, which means that they only flower once and then die. We all knew about Strobilanthus (neelakurinji flower), a shrub found in the shola forests of the Western Ghats and flowers at intervals of approximately 12 years. All Strobilanthus species flower at long intervals, but the species Strobilanthus kunthiana has been documented rigorously and its flowering interval is well known and touted for tourism purposes in certain parts of the Western Ghats. Plants like this one that bloom at long intervals are known as plietesials. 

The mass seeding phenomenon documented in these so-called ‘suicidal’ plants is known as masting. Dr. Ganesan told us that this behaviour is also seen in species of bamboo in Northeast India. Most bamboo plants flower only once in their life cycle. But there is something strange about this - all members of a species, regardless of geographical location, will flower simultaneously. This means that bamboo forests hundreds of kilometers apart suddenly burst into flower at the same time, something scientists are still trying to understand the reason behind. Dr. Ganesan likened it to a ticking time bomb, where a silent countdown seems to trigger this mass flowering phenomenon that culminates in the bamboo stands dying all at once, following the principle of monocarpy. 

It was fascinating to later read that bamboo flowering is seen as a bad omen in different parts of Northeast India. It is believed to lead to famines and poverty, perhaps because certain years of bamboo flowering correlated with a spike in the rodent population that devastated crops. Even the Mahabharat mentions bamboo flowering as an ill omen. Draupadi, the queen of the Pandavas, cursed the evil king Jayadrath who captured her that he would be destroyed just as the bamboo brings about instant destruction when it flowers. 

What a unique thought it is - suicidal trees shrouded in omens and beliefs that extend well beyond the realm of science! As we stared at the Strobilanthus plant on the forest floor of KMTR, we wondered if a silent time bomb was ticking down the seconds to its next masting event right before our eyes.