A Lightning Strike of Coconuts in New Guinea.

Abstract

The effects are recorded of a lightning strike on coconuts in a plantation on an island off the New Guinea coast. There was a delayed expression of symptoms (mainly frond break and frond droop), the most severe damage being apparent on 19 palms (including the struck palm) four months after the strike. Six palms died within 100 ft. of the struck palm but others within this radius were either apparently unaffected or showed only mild to severe symptoms. The recovery period of the 12 affected palms which did not die coincided in the main with a four-month drought. which may have prevented the development of secondary rots. The site was under observation for 31 months.