The world’s tallest tropical trees have no trouble pumping water to their topmost branches, new research reveals.

Conventional scientific theory suggests that as trees grow, it becomes harder to transport water from roots to leaves – limiting growth and making trees more vulnerable to drought.

But the new study finds that adjustments to water transport inside giant Dipterocarp trees “fully compensated” for the challenges of drawing water to the top.

As a result, the height of these trees does not make their water systems more vulnerable to drought compared to shorter trees, and separate testing found they suffered no height-related loss in growth (compared to smaller trees) during a severe drought.