Mysterious circles of trees in a Japanese forest - the result of a curious experiment

Crop circles are the main element of conspiracy theories that are often attributed to UFO landings and contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. Therefore, imagine the experiences experienced by people who recently discovered incredible geometric patterns in a Japanese forest. And they were not created from wheat ears, but from the huge trees of Japanese cedar.

However, the origin of these patterns is much more ordinary. Back in 1973, scientists began a project on "experimental forestry," the purpose of which was to study the effect of distance between trees on their growth. They planted cedar circles near the city of Nikinan in Miyazaki Prefecture. Starting from the smaller inner circle, where the trees were planted more densely, the distance between the seedlings was gradually increased, which led to an increase in diameter. The result is 10 perfect rings, which today look very intriguing from the air for those who are not in the know about research.

As you can see in the photo below, the experiment showed fairly unambiguous results. The concave shape indicates that the outer circles with the lowest planting density contribute to higher growth of trees. Moreover, the size of trees is steadily decreasing with increasing density.

However, the results of the experiment are logical. The larger the space, the less competition there is for resources such as water and sunlight. Therefore, these outer trees were easier to grow and grow stronger. While the trees in the inner circles had to fight among themselves.

According to a report by scientists, the average difference in height between the smallest trees in the center and the tallest outside was more than 5 meters.

Trees should have been cut down after the experiment, but given such worldwide interest in this very beautiful and unexpected research result, these circles are likely to leave in the forest. Perhaps they will even become a tourist attraction in the future.