Getting struck by lightning is good for one tree

Lightning kills trees. Not this one.

Dipteryx oleifera grows tall above the Panamanian canopy and gets hit far more often than its neighbors—and comes through nearly unharmed while the trees around it die. Every strike burns off the vines strangling its crown and clears the competition overhead.

Researchers estimate a tree that keeps getting hit produces something like fifteen times more seed over its life than one that doesn’t. It isn’t surviving lightning. It’s using it.

What if you could use the thing that would destroy you?

Sources

• Getting hit by lightning is good for some tropical trees — Cary Institute, on Gora et al. 2025, New Phytologist

Sources checked 2026-08-12.