Crown Of Shyness

[BOD]

Went for a walk today and took these photos and it occurred to me that some might be interested to see what the crown of shyness looks like in a tropical rainforest.

The crown of shyness refers to the phenomenon of the crown of canopy trees not interlocking in a tangle but keeping their distance. In northern forests with fewer species it seems this is principally due to abrasion caused by wind but I am told it is not so clear in the tropics where there are many more species and some studies suggest wind is not a factor or not the only factor.

Here are photos of the underside of the canopy of some tall trees from different vantage points. The trees are similar in height and mature.

With a canopy like that the forest floor was quite open and easy to walk through

Here is a canopy with trees of varying heights

Here is the crown of some medium trees that have not established themselves. They are on a slope and the canopy is not the same height.

 

[Matthew.Passmore]

That's really cool, it's like an aerial view of a rainforest with the river running through it, is there any reason it's called the Crown of Shyness?

 

[Shewie]

That's really cool, it's like an aerial view of a rainforest with the river running through it, is there any reason it's called the Crown of Shyness?

I was just thinking the same, looks like a satellite shot with huge river networks disecting it.

Great pics BOD

Crowd of Shyness because the foliage shys away from it's neighbour ?

 

[AJB]

That's just lovely!

After reading many of your posts, I've always wanted to ask you BOD, do you live there permanently?

 

[Galemys]

Fascinating! I've never heard of this phenomenon

Cheers,

Tom

 

[British Red]

Anyone else thinking "abstract art"?

Stunning!

 

[malente]

wow, never even knew there is something like that. must remember to look up some times when I'm on a bimble.

thanks for sharing!

 

[locum76]

just as the others said, that is stunning. I've never seen a photo specifically of that before.

 

[stooboy]

nice, thanks for sharing, very psychadelic imho

 

[Matthew.Passmore]

Crowd of Shyness because the foliage shys away from it's neighbour ?

I was thinking something like that.

 

[Tye Possum]

Wow that's so cool. I didn't know trees could do that.

 

[BOD]

AJB

Would be nice to live there permanently if I had some mod cons. Just a frequent visitor.

A few more for those interested.

 

[Blades]

Very weird pictures, the 3, 4, & 5 look like B&W images of a crusted lava lake. If you take away the actual tree trunks then it looks very much like lava