Plants Can Be Just As Weird As Birds - Tumblr Posts

I’ve had a couple of asks on this one recently so I thought I’d briefly explain about Granary Trees because I had some clumsy wording in the main entry. 

At some point in the distant past the common ancestor of Granary Trees and Oaks budded off acorns pretty much wherever, much like the Jabuticaba. From what few fossil records exist, it looks like the Oaks split off to favor dropping a metric crapload of acorns from the ends of branches in the hopes that eventually the animals eating them would become too sated to continue devouring future trees while also reducing incidental chewing damage done to trunks and boughs. Granary Trees on the other hand started being more protective of their seeds and only growing them partway out of the branches and trunk, presumably to cut down on the energy expenditure of fruit. As with most anything involving evolved defenses, this set off an arms race with an ancestor of Acorn Woodpeckers which finally ended in a symbiotic stalemate as the woodpeckers became necessary to spread the acorns in order to prevent the choking death of the Granary Tree.

Evolution is weird.

Unlike more traditional woodpeckers who root around for interesting larvae and boring insects, Acorn Woodpeckers have a symbiotic relationship with Granary Trees (an ancient offshoot of mighty Oaks). Without the help of these chisel-beaked avians, Granary Trees would strangle as their own acorns germinate inside them. After removing the acorns, these unusual woodpeckers will proceed to bury them in underground caches as emergency food in case of a harsh winter; come spring any caches that were not consumed sprout new Granary Trees, beginning the cycle anew.