Talking Trees? By Brian Simpson

I talk to trees, but do trees talk to me? Of course not, they are too busy talking to each other.

https://humansarefree.com/2021/03/scientists-explain-how-trees-talk-to-each-other.html

“Trees talk to each other deep underground. It’s an idea still relatively new to science but familiar to ancient beliefs.

Today, scientists are confirming that forests act like one big superorganism. Below the ground, fungal highways connect the trees. Through this highway, the oldest trees nurture their young.

What’s more, the trees communicate and cooperate with other species. Thus, they may help each other, contrasting with the idea of selfish competition.

Trees Talk On The ‘The Wood-Wide Web’

Yes, trees talk to each other, but how?

After millions of years of evolution starting 600 million years ago, fungi and plants formed symbiotic relationships called a mycorrhiza. Notably, the word comes from the Greek for fungus and root.

Here’s how it works: In exchange for sugars and carbon from the trees, the fungi provide what trees require: minerals, nutrients, and a communication network.

Similar to an internet connection, the mycorrhizal network extends throughout the forest. Fungal threads called hyphae create a highway and merge with tree roots. Then, trees can send and receive items like these:

• nitrogen
• sugars
• carbon
• phosphorous
• water
• defense signals
• chemicals
• hormones

Amazingly, one tree can connect to hundreds of other trees, sending out signals. Along the threads, bacteria and other microbes swap nutrients with the fungi and the tree roots.

A Global Map Of The Tree Network

In 2019, scientists began mapping this “wood wide web” on a global scale. Since then, the international study produced the first global map of the mycorrhizal fungi network. Importantly, it could be the most important and ancient social network on Earth.

‘Mother Trees’ Protect The Forests

For three decades, ecologist Suzanne Simard from the University of British Columbia has studied how trees talk. After extensive experimentation, she has learned how the network she calls “the otherworld” connects life in forests.

“Yes, trees are the foundation of forests, but a forest is much more than what you see,” says Simard.

“You see, underground there is this otherworld, a world of infinite biological pathways that connect trees and allow them to communicate, and allow the forest to behave as if it is a single organism. It might remind you of a sort of intelligence.”

Reaching out along the network, hub trees, she calls Mother Trees can nurture growing saplings. When older trees die, they may bequeath their nutrients, genes, even a kind of wisdom to others. Thus, by tapping into the otherworld, trees gain valuable resources and insight into their surroundings.

Community Resilience

As a consequence, connected trees have a distinct advantage and resilience. However, if you cut a tree off from the network it becomes vulnerable. Often, they succumb to disease at much higher rates.

Unfortunately, practices like clear-cutting or replacing forests with a single species decimates this intricate ecosystem. Sadly, trees that don’t tap into the community network are vulnerable to disease and bugs. As a result, harvesting becomes unsustainable.

In a TED presentation, Simard notes:

“…Trees talk. Through back and forth conversations, [trees] increase the resilience of the whole community. It probably reminds you of our own social communities, and our families, well, at least some families,” said Simard.”

Well, I did not know that. Next time I saw down tree, I will sing it a lullaby.