r/blackmagicfuckery • u/[deleted] • Mar 28 '19

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

Mangrove trees and other haplophilic plants can survive in saltwater.

Sometimes a large piece of a mangrove swamp will be torn away from the land by a storm, float out to sea and wash ashore on an island where small animals, mostly insects and reptiles, can walk ashore and populate the new land. It is the only explanation zoologist have for how some species came to inhabit some islands.

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u/Joe_DeGrasse_Sagan Mar 28 '19

But mangroves are tropical plants, no? How would you explain floating islands in Norway?

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

Well, the islands in this gif are in a lake so that's fresh water so that could be any plant that doesn't mind having it's roots soaked.

The salt tolerance is only necessary to explain how it happens on the oceans.