The Continuation of a Long Journey

It is a mistake to believe that an entire tree grows from a seed. The seed contains some instructions and a tool-kit. The tree is built from the soil, air and water, using energy from the sun. Some germinating seeds use gravity to determine in which direction to grow. A tree which attempted to grow roots into the air and leaves in the ground would not work. Mechanisms exist to minimise this risk.

Trees are very good at being trees. They have been trees for a very long time. That all of a tree's leaves see some sunlight is not magic. A tree which wastes leaves wastes resources. A tree which wasted resources may have suffered compared to one which did not, depending upon the availability of the resources. Trees with an efficient arrangement of leaves were more likely to survive. Trees with efficient arrangements of leaves did survive.