Tree volcano? (A "treecano", if you will)

Okay, so I have a species of tree that's absolutely enormous, 1-5km tall when fully matured. Its immense size is supported by a large base, bark that incorporates a 2-d carbon lattice for strength (similar to graphene, carbyne and carbon nanotubes), and a fully functioning circulatory system to distribute nutrients to the top of the tree, all designed to overcome the limitations placed on its growth by gravity. These trees are obviously the kaiju of the plant world, and just like the Earth's biome could only feasibly support a handful of such giant creatures, I'd imagine only so many of these trees could exist on a given planet or landmass, and probably not enough to sustain a genetically diverse population.

That got me to thinking. How does this plant species reproduce?

Now, bear with me. I realize I'm no science or biology major and that I totally stole this idea from Starship Troopers, but could this tree's life cycle incorporate biological "eruptions" designed to fling seeds/spores as far as possible to cover a wider area?

I imagine it'd work something like this. After reaching adulthood, the tree begins to continuously build up pressure in its main chamber, or perhaps it begins converting some of its nutrients into a flammable explosive stored inside the trunk. It then periodically "erupts" in a series of small (relatively speaking) ejections that relieve pressure and fling its seeds with enough force to scatter them across the surface of the planet to seed areas hundreds or even thousands of miles away. After a certain number of these small eruptions, the planet is covered in the main tree's smaller, monozygotic offspring, and the tree begins nearing the end of its reproductive cycle. It then allows the pressure or the concentration of explosive fluid to build without erupting until it bursts in the largest eruption of its life, which kills the tree but sends a large seed hurtling not just into the atmosphere to cover the planet, but into space to seed the next planet it lands on.

Is this plausible? Is this mechanism viable and could such a large organism that flings its seeds/spores into space at escape velocity possibly exist?

posted about 8 years ago

Z.Schroeder‭

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