r/interestingasfuck • u/room0001 • 4h ago
In 1973 Japan planted trees in concentric circles as part of an experiment in forestry spacing. This is what they look like today from above.
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u/deep8787 3h ago
In a thousand years time:
"Look, we found proof of aliens!!"
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u/Icy_Magician_9372 3h ago
How optimistic. I give it a month at most.
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u/I-baLL 3h ago
I mean it's already been 53 years
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u/smoothie4564 3h ago
Have you ever met someone who actually watches the TV show Ancient Aliens? I have and those people are gullible and dumb as rocks. The show runners could make an entire episode about those exact trees, even though the men who planted them are probably still alive and waiting to be interviewed.
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u/ThunderOrb 24m ago
Honestly, my wife and I used to watch the show just to learn about cultures we'd never heard of before. It was pretty educational for us in that regard.
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u/20ag_OG_LOL 1h ago
Most of the show is dumb but some episodes make good arguments. For example sudden appearance of speech genes
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u/John-Orion 4h ago
Was the goal to take less space, don't think it does
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u/BoxOfDemons 4h ago
They planted the trees at different spacings on each ring. They wanted to see what the best spacing was. Too close and they don't grow tall enough to use for lumber, too far apart and they grow tall but you're leaving empty land. They wanted to find the sweet spot for replanting forests for lumber use.
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u/TehTabi 3h ago
So what was the answer?
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u/magpye1983 3h ago
Spiral in golden ratio is the answer. Nature already showed us this multiple times.
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u/ThresholdSeven 3h ago edited 2h ago
That's not what they are going for in this experiment, but once they settle on the best tree size, the most efficient way is to just stagger them in straight lines. It may be more efficient to plant in a grid depending on the harvest method.
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u/PetrifiedBloom 3h ago
That would actually be among the worst layouts.
The spacing is to ensure plants get enough light and nutrients to grow well. You want to fit as many as possible without reducing yield to far. You also want a consistent, repeatable pattern that is easy to navigate with heavy machinery when it comes time to plant and harvest.
A spiral with changing density is almost perfectly against the goals. Very few trees will be in the optimum density, large portions of land will be under utilised and the lack of repeating straight lines makes it a pain for machinery. An entirely natural forest would be better, plants will be competing for light somewhat, but it self regulates density so at least it's reasonably consistent.
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u/Buddyh1 3h ago
From the picture, it looks like more space is best for having large trees lumber. Really? They didn't already know this?
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u/actualkon 3h ago
It's about the optimization. What is the distance where they still grow tall enough to be usable, but close enough that you can plant more of them in that space
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u/MainlandX 3h ago
Thanks Buddy for the excellent insight. I’ll start planting my lumber trees 10 miles apart.
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u/BoxOfDemons 3h ago
There's a sweet spot. Sure they grow a little taller but you're leaving a lot of land empty. You can get more lumber overall settling for shorter trees planted closer together. This test was to find the best sweet spot.
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u/ThresholdSeven 3h ago
It's to see how close they can plant them together to save space without planting them too close that they don't grow big enough.
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u/ComplexWriting7596 3h ago
Too much space and they grow more side branches, which makes knots in the lumber.
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u/Away_Needleworker6 4h ago
Probably something to do with growth and preserving the life beneath the branches.
Lots of planted forest today kills the original forest floor due to being planted too close.
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u/Zesty_Lemongitis 4h ago
Why would you assume that was the goal?
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u/John-Orion 4h ago
"Was the goal"... I did not know nor did I claim to know. I just said if it was then it didn't work.
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u/Tristhar 4h ago
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u/zorba8 2h ago
Cool to look at, but no thanks for me. Personally I prefer the randomness found in nature over this kind of man-made order.
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u/StrayUser_Passingby 2h ago
Plus, this looks kind of freaky. Like, I don’t know what the phenomenon here is, but the inner-shrinking circular tree patterns at certain areas weirds me out. It’s like a vortex.
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u/The_Deli_Ham 2h ago
Look up romanesco broccoli. Honestly what i thought this was at first glance. Nature can be crazy organized not just humans (which humans are part of nature, so honestly the separation makes little sense). There are so many examples too. Look at honeycomb, snowflakes, sunflower seeds...order and patterns are there from small like crystal lattice and dna double helix to large like planetary systems and galactic disks
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u/SleepApprehensive585 3h ago
Most people think spacing, but also self pruning. Conifers will drop branches that are shaded. This creates clear wood without knots on the lower parts of the tree. Optimal spacing allows for individual tree growth, but enough competition to create shade on the lower limbs.
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u/Catarga 4h ago
The trees in the center are noticeably shorter than those around the edges, even though they’re the same age