Crown Shyness – The Mystery of Coyness in the Canopy

A basic human reaction to being near someone you don't want to be near is simply to move away.  Something like that happens with a number of tree species.  Their crowns do not touch each other at the canopy level.  Yet, the true reason for this adaptive behavior (which helps a species to cope in its environment with greatest success and least conflict with others, including its own) is still something of a mystery.  A number of reasons have been put forward, but none proven definitively.  If only the trees could talk…

More exactly, the reasons for crown shyness is believed to vary across different species.  Crown Shyness was first given its name over a century ago and since then it has been hypothesized that the reasons for this are multiple – with one species having a reason for manifesting this striking behavior while others have different reasons.