The stories we tell ourselves about the natural world can sometimes be far from the truth. For years, visitors to the rainforests of Central and South America have been told of a tree that moves slowly on its shaky roots. The legend of the walking palm (Socratea exorrhiza) has been around since at least 1980, when anthropologists John H. Bodley and Foley C. Benson detailed the plant’s incredible behavior in a scientific paper.

According to Bodley and Benson, some palm trees in eastern Peru can “straighten up and ‘exit’ the obstruction” by moving away from the germination point when it hits trees or branches. Palm trees are said to chase sunlight in the forest with a dozen roots emerging from their long trunks.

Sometimes these roots are several feet above the ground, and as Bodley explained decades ago, when they break off or rot, new roots can explore areas slightly further into the soil.

To this day, rainforest guides in Latin America routinely tell tourists that walking palm trees can change their position by 20 meters per year. But while some scientists believe there may be some truth to this story, the walking nature of this tree is most likely a myth. If you look at the evidence, it doesn’t actually have legs to stand on.

In 2005, tropical ecologist and palm expert Gerardo Avalos published a study showing that S. exorrhiza does not actually go from where it germinates.

In the paper, Avalos and his colleagues agree that if a walking palm tree topples, it may quickly grow new roots to cope with the loss of stability, but it doesn’t actually move very much.

In an interview with Italian illustrator and writer Elisa Paganelli, Avalos explains that the walking palm tree depends on its location of germination, but like other tropical forest plants, it can still stretch slightly to seek light.

Socratea exorrhiza, a cascading tree in the forests of Costa Rica. (GaiBru_Photo/Getty Images)
The scientist admits that “it’s amazing and amazing that you can believe” that a walking palm tree can actually walk, but says “it’s just a myth.”

“A large cone, composed primarily of leggy roots, takes a long time to develop,” Avalos noted in a 2009 correspondence with Skeptical Inquirer’s Benjamin Radford. “Changes in the cone’s lighting conditions are more dynamic when some holes in the cone open simultaneously while others close.”

The idea that a palm outstretched could move fast enough to find these gaps of light is unrealistic, Avalos says.

Another study on this interesting species in 2007 reached the same conclusion as Avalos and his colleagues. But the real mystery that still remains is why the walking palm tree has such long legs, if not for walking. As early as the 1960s, scientists believed that these extreme roots evolved to cope with floods, but there is little convincing evidence to support this idea.

In recent years, researchers have suggested that in dense tropical forests, the long roots of palm trees allow species to more easily increase their height and stability by exploiting light gaps in the canopy canopy, without expending energy on a thick trunk. While many people will undoubtedly continue to talk about this tree, the evidence at this stage suggests that this species does not actually walk the earth.