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The original was posted on /r/biology by /u/oliverknot on 2024-04-09 14:14:26.

Hi, I’m a first year A-Level Biology student, so please don’t beat me up if this question is stupid haha!

Today in lesson we learnt about Cohesion-Tension theory, and a section of that was about the proof for said theory. One point mentioned was that the Xylem diameter decreases when temperature rises, so the tree trunk shrinks with it. This of course explains why the hotter the country, the thinner the trunk – usually?

The Madagascarn trees have extremely thick trunks despite being in an extremely hot environment, and while their leaves are very small I’m not convinced this explains why their Xylem is, presumably, so thick.

This doesn’t seem evolutionarily beneficial at all. Can someone explain this? Thanks!