Imagine that you are standing on a flat plain in eastern Africa. Your view is dominated by one species of stunted tree, the whistling thorn acacia. This landscape may look simple, even monotonous, but plant ecologists from UC Davis are demonstrating that this is far from the case. In the acacia highlands of Kenya , Professor Maureen Stanton, Truman Young and their colleagues are unraveling the intricate relationships between these trees and their insect inhabitants.
Caution is advised when approaching the whistling thorn.
As protection against Kenya's many browsers such as antelope and giraffe, the acacia is armed with two kinds of thorns. Pale, paired stilettos, up to three inches long, are interspersed with modified thorn pairs joined at the base by a hollow bulbous swelling. Tiny holes pierce these swollen thorns, turning them into miniature flutes in the breeze, and giving the tree its name. Music isn't their only surprise. As Maureen Stanton and Truman Young know too well, even the slightest brush against a tree can result in a mass of biting ants streaming out of the holes in the swollen thorns.