The civilization of trees: how they communicate and how they look like people

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Trees appeared on Earth before humans, but it is not customary to perceive them as living beings. In his book The Secret Life of Trees: The Astounding Science of What Trees Feel and How They Interact, German forester Peter Volleben recounts how he noticed that trees communicate with each other, transmit information through smell, taste and electrical impulses, and how he himself learned to recognize their soundless language.

When Volleben first started working with forests in the Eifel mountains in Germany, he had a completely different idea of trees. He was preparing the forest for the production of lumber and "knew about the hidden life of trees as much as the butcher knows about the emotional life of animals." He saw what happens when something living, be it a creature or a work of art, turns into a commodity - the "commercial focus" of the work distorted his view of the trees.

But about 20 years ago, everything changed. Volleben then began organizing special forest survival tours, during which tourists lived in log huts. They showed a sincere admiration for the "magic" of trees. This fueled his own curiosity and love for nature, even from childhood, flared up with renewed vigor. Around the same time, scientists began to conduct research in his forest. Stopping looking at trees as currency, he saw in them priceless living creatures.

Peter Volleben's book "The Hidden Life of Trees"

He tells:

“The life of a forester has become exciting again. Every day in the forest was an opening day. This led me to unusual forest management practices. When you know that trees are in pain and have a memory, and their parents live with their children, you can no longer just cut them down, cut off life with your car."

Interesting on the topic: Plant mind

The revelation came to him in flashes, especially during regular walks in the part of the forest where the old beech grew. One day, passing by a pile of stones covered with moss, which he had seen many times before, Volleben suddenly realized how peculiar they are. Leaning over, he made a startling discovery:

“The stones were of an unusual shape, as if bent around something. I gently lifted up the moss on one stone and discovered the bark of a tree. That is, these were not stones at all - it was an old tree. I was surprised how hard the "rock" was - usually in moist soil, beech wood decomposes in a few years. But what amazed me most was that I could not lift it. It was as if it were attached to the ground. I took out my pocket knife and carefully cut off the bark until I got to the greenish layer. Green? This color is found only in chlorophyll, which causes the leaves to grow green; chlorophyll reserves are also found in the trunks of living trees. It could only mean one thing: this piece of wood was still alive! Suddenly I noticed that the remaining "stones" were lying in a certain way: they were in a circle with a diameter of 5 feet. That is, I came across the twisted remains of a huge ancient tree stump. The interior has long since rotted completely - a clear sign that the tree must have collapsed at least 400 or 500 years ago.”

How could a tree cut down centuries ago still live? Without leaves, a tree cannot photosynthesize, that is, it cannot convert sunlight into nutrients. This ancient tree received them in some other way - and for hundreds of years!

Scientists have revealed the secret. They found that neighboring trees help others through the root system either directly, by intertwining the roots, or indirectly - they create a kind of mycelium around the roots, which serves as a kind of expanded nervous system, connecting distant trees. In addition, trees at the same time exhibit the ability to distinguish between the roots of trees of other species.

Volleben compared this smart system to what happens in human society:

“Why are trees so social creatures? Why do they share food with members of their own species, and sometimes even go further to feed their rivals? The reason is the same as in the human community: being together is an advantage. A tree is not a forest. The tree cannot establish its local climate - it is at the disposal of the wind and weather. But together, the trees form an ecosystem that regulates heat and cold, stores a large supply of water, and generates moisture. In such conditions, trees can live for a very long time. If each tree cared only about itself, some of them would never have survived to old age. Then, in a storm, it would be easier for the wind to get into the forest and damage many trees. The sun's rays would reach the earth's canopy and dry it out. As a result, every tree would suffer.

Thus, each tree is important to the community, and everyone is better off extending life as much as possible. Therefore, even the sick, until they recover, are supported and fed by the rest. Next time, perhaps everything will change, and the tree that now supports others will need help. […]

A tree can be as strong as the forest around it."

Someone might ask if trees are not better equipped to help each other than we are, because our lives are measured in different scales of time. Could our failure to see the full picture of mutual support in the human community be explained by biological myopia? Maybe organisms whose life is measured on a different scale are better suited to exist in this grand universe, where everything is deeply interconnected?

No doubt even trees support each other to varying degrees. Volleben explains:

“Each tree is a member of the community, but it has different levels. For example, most tree stumps start to rot and disappear in a couple of hundred years (which is not much for a tree). And only a few remain alive for centuries. What's the difference? Do trees have a “second-class” population, as in human society? Apparently, yes, but the term "variety" does not quite fit. Rather, it is the degree of connection - or perhaps affection - that determines how willing its neighbors are to help the tree."

This relationship can also be seen in the treetops if you look closely:

“An ordinary tree extends its branches until they reach the branches of a neighboring tree of the same height. Further, the branches do not grow, because otherwise they will not have enough air and light. It may seem that they are pushing each other. But a couple of "comrades" do not. The trees do not want to take anything away from each other, they stretch their branches to the edges of each other's crown and in the direction of those who are not their "friends". Such partners are often so closely tied at the roots that sometimes they die together."

Video on the topic: Language of plants

But trees do not interact with each other outside the ecosystem. They often turn out to be associated with representatives of other species. Volleben describes their olfactory warning system as follows:

“Four decades ago, scientists noticed that giraffes in the African savannah were feeding on the umbrella spiny acacia. And the trees didn't like it. Within a few minutes, acacia trees began to release a toxic substance into the leaves in order to get rid of the herbivores. The giraffes understood this and moved on to other trees nearby. But not to the nearest ones - in search of food, they retreated about 100 yards.

The reason for this is amazing. Acacia, when eaten by giraffes, released a special "alarm gas" that was a signal of danger to neighbors of the same species. Those, in turn, also began to release the toxic substance into the foliage to prepare for the meeting. The giraffes were already aware of this game and retreated to that part of the savanna, where it was possible to find trees, to which the news had not yet reached. […] ".

Since the age of the tree is much larger than the human age, everything happens much more slowly with them. Volleben writes:

“Beeches, spruces and oaks feel pain as soon as someone starts to gnaw them. When the caterpillar bites off a piece of the leaf, the tissue around the damaged area changes. In addition, leaf tissue sends electrical signals, just like human tissue if it hurts. But the signal is not transmitted in milliseconds, as in humans - it moves much slower, at a rate of a third of an inch per minute. So it will take an hour or more for the protective substances to be delivered to the leaves to poison the food of the pest. Trees live their lives very slowly, even if they are in danger. But this does not mean that the tree is not aware of what is happening with its different parts. For example, if the roots are threatened, information spreads through the entire tree, and the leaves send odorous substances in response. And not some old ones, but special components that they immediately develop for this purpose."

The positive side of this slowness is that there is no need to raise a general alarm. The speed is compensated by the accuracy of the supplied signals. In addition to smell, trees use taste: each variety produces a certain type of "saliva", which can be saturated with pheromones, aimed at scaring off the predator.

To show how important trees play in the Earth's ecosystem, Volleben told a story that took place in Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park.

“It all started with wolves. Wolves disappeared from Yellowstone Park in the 1920s. With their disappearance, the entire ecosystem has changed. The number of elk increased and they began to eat aspen, willow and poplar. Vegetation declined, and the animals that depended on these trees also began to disappear. There were no wolves for 70 years. When they returned, the life of the moose was no longer languid. When the wolves forced the herds to move, the trees began to grow again. The roots of willows and poplars strengthened the banks of the streams, and their flow slowed down. This, in turn, created conditions for the return of some animals, in particular beavers - they could now find the necessary materials to build their huts and start families. Animals whose lives are linked to coastal meadows have also returned. It turned out that wolves run the economy better than humans […]”.

More on this case in Yellowstone: How wolves change rivers.