It just seems like there’s so much wasted real estate with all that trunk space, even in the canopy, there’s light shining through. (palm tree’s are what first got me thinking on the topic).
In: Biology
Keep in mind that your tree trunk is a generally vertical shape, and light is generally falling vertically. This means that the most efficient way to capture light would be to expand horizontally, hence branches and leaves. Second, the more surface area you have, the more light you can capture. You will see some small animals that carry algae in their cells for this purpose, but it does not occur in larger animals. This is because the surface area to volume is low in a larger animal, but higher in a smaller animal. That is, a small animal can receive sufficient nutrients from its guest algae to make it worth doing, but a larger animal will never be able to.
Now if you go cut into a tree, you will notice that the upper-most layer just below the bark is actually green and contains chloroplasts. If they were exposed, they could photosynthesize. As I understand it, trees are able to sense the change of light this way and decide when they should produce leaves as the season change.
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