traveller's tree

More tree photos from Hawaii, this time of what I'm fairly sure is the strangest tree I've ever seen. This is a Traveller's Tree (Ravenala madagascariensis), which hails from Madagascar. That's probably the only unsurprising thing about it; the only tree I know of that might top this one for sheer weirdness is the baobab, which also hails from Madagascar.

I haven't yet seen a convincing explanation for the odd foliage. An urban myth among gardeners suggests that these trees always orient themselves east to west, so they serve as a directional aid for travellers, hence the name. It sounds like something that could potentially be true, and it would be kind of cool if it was, but I found a couple of forum threads full of people pointing out that the trees in their yard do no such thing. So don't toss out that GPS unit just yet.



The most common hypothesis about the name is that rainwater supposedly collects in the foliage and the trees serve as a water source for travellers. Again, it sounds entirely possible, but I ran across one brief account of someone repeatedly trying and failing to actually do this, and he goes on to note that there is no shortage of available water in these trees' native environment anyway. Another account points out that the collected water tends to be full of dead insects and "other not so nice and smelly stuff". So maybe this story is true and maybe it isn't. Traveller's trees seem to be a natural, renewable source of mythology, if nothing else.



The reader will not be surprised to learn that the traveller's tree's main pollinator is not an insect, or a bat, or even a bird. Nope, these trees are pollinated by lemurs, specifically the Black and White Ruffed Lemur. There are other, less exotic, ways to propagate traveller's trees, so the home gardener is not required to keep a troop of lemurs around. You have to admit that would be kind of awesome, though.



One additional legend, as related here, is that wishes made in front of a traveller's tree are sure to come true. That sounds just as testable as the previous two notions, but I haven't found any accounts of anyone doing so. I'm fairly sure I didn't wish for anything when I was standing in front of this one. I was too busy taking photos and saying useless things like "Huh" and "Never seen anything like it".