> Then there are mangroves whose trunk flattens out at the base; these trees stem from a branch at a low elevation — and they walk!...Is this tree really walking? When we walk, our physical mass moves as a whole. But no displacement of matter occurs with mangroves; the way they grow just makes it look that way. The “movement” is the growing process, four to five meters a year. The branch experiences necrosis and vanishes at one end, while it keeps developing on the other.
But not even that much I don't think. But perhaps you are thinking along the lines of a whole forest moving. Trees dying on one side, born on the other. Over a long timescale the forest 'walks'.
Well it does say "poetic" in the name of the book, which I own, and I would say "the way they grow just makes it look that way" would definitely poetically count as walking.
