After 1-2 y pods rot and can easily be opened by small rodents.
The wood from these rapid-growing trees is weak, spongy and rots easily.
Smaller plants, fungi and invertebrates (including termites) also live on or within rotting wood in the ghost forest.
After serious trauma or death, some types of plants collapse and begin to rot.
These resistance mechanisms may include chemical defences against fungal rot and seed predators, and chemical and/or structural deterrence of herbivores.
The other below average-yield grower experienced severe brown rot in the mid-1990s which damaged the trees.
A further factor relates to the potential biological deterioration of cell wall components by soft rot fungi, thereby reducing the strength of the wood.
Itching feet and foot rot are probably due to excreted parasitic helminth worms capable of penetrating bare feet.
