In a rainforest teeming with competition, one tree has discovered how to turn catastrophe into advantage.
In Panama’s dense lowland jungle, a tropical species called Dipteryx oleifera—known locally as almendro or the tonka bean tree—has evolved a stunning relationship with lightning. When bolts flash across the sky and strike the towering tree, it doesn’t just survive. It flourishes.
Nature’s Selective Strike
Lightning has long been considered an indiscriminate killer in tropical forests. Each year, scientists estimate, it strikes trees in the tropics millions of times. Those bolts usually kill the trees they hit, but they also open gaps in the canopy, making space for new life. But the latest study, published in New Phytologist says things aren’t so simple.
Led by tropical ecologist Evan Gora of Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the study shows that Dipteryx oleifera may be evolving with lightning—not merely surviving it, but leveraging it.
“We started doing this work 10 years ago, and it became really apparent that lightning kills a lot of trees, especially a lot of very big trees,” Gora told Live Science. “But Dipteryx oleifera consistently showed no damage.”
This was no fluke. Between 2014 and 2019, Gora’s team tracked 93 trees that had been struck by lightning using a custom-built sensor network and high-resolution imaging. Of those, nine were D. oleifera. Every single one survived. Their competitors weren’t so lucky.
Most neighboring trees didn’t make it. On average, a lightning strike near a D. oleifera killed nine surrounding trees and reduced parasitic vine infestation—particularly lianas—by 78%. These vines ordinarily cling to the canopy, robbing the host tree of sunlight. After the strike, the almendro stood alone, bathed in light, unburdened by parasites, and with less competition for nutrients. Lightning solved all the tree’s problems in one strike.
A Thorny Advantage
This is where it gets even more interestinig. The study also suggests that D. oleifera doesn’t just tolerate lightning. It may attract it.
Standing up to 165 feet tall and crowned with a wide canopy, D. oleifera is 68% more likely to be struck than other trees. Researchers suspect this isn’t accidental. Its height and crown shape make it a natural lightning rod. The team found that over its 300-year lifespan, a mature tree is struck about five times.
“Any tree that gets close essentially gets electrocuted,” Gora told Science.
While nearby species suffer, D. oleifera appears to gain a massive evolutionary edge. The study estimated that lightning-struck trees could see a 14-fold increase in seed production over their lifetime. That’s a massive payoff in evolutionary terms.
The mechanism behind this resilience is still unclear. One idea is that the tree’s wood conducts electricity efficiently, allowing current to travel through the trunk without generating damaging heat. Another possibility is that its architecture redirects the charge into the surrounding air or neighboring trees.
A New Role for an Old Force
This research is part of a growing reevaluation of lightning’s ecological role. For years, forest scientists understood that lightning was one of many forces that shaped ecosystems. But few realized it might shape the evolutionary paths of specific species.
The implications are striking. If lightning influences which trees live and die, it could play a role in shaping entire forest communities. That becomes more urgent in a world with shifting climate patterns.
Lightning is expected to become more frequent and intense as the atmosphere warms. One 2014 study projected a 12% increase in lightning frequency for every 1°C rise in global temperature. That could make the selective pressure even more potent.
It might also help explain why certain trees, like D. oleifera, evolved such unusual features in the first place. And in the middle of that story, on the receiving end of nature’s smite, stands a tree that just might be playing the long game.
