The Wood Wide Web

 

I found the new book ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ to be an interesting read – it includes ideas which many would be skeptical of. It describes how trees communicate with each other to warn of threats. So how is it possible for trees to communicate because we do not ‘hear’ them in a conventional sense. When we think about communication we automatically assume that sound and language are the only means of sharing information. However, “The Hidden Life of Trees” soon makes it apparent that there are in fact many other forms of communication including some that trees utilize.

How do trees communicate? Trees have social networks where they can communicate and support one another using their roots. The roots for a brain-like structure and send electrical and chemical signals to each other. They can carry information but frequently, the roots do not reach all the way through the ground and therefore, they use Internet like fungal network to send information further.

So fungi connects to the roots of many individual trees and it acts like a super highway information transmitter, sending information backwards and forwards about the latest news such as drought. However, this is not the only way they can communicate. They can also use their sense of smell and taste! When an insect feeds on the leaf of the tree, the tree can detect the saliva of the insect and then release chemical signals to attract predators that feed on that particular insect.

Trees also use their sense of smell is by sending chemical information (Ethylene) into the air warning their neighbours of an insect attack. The trees therefore produce a toxic chemical that spreads through their leaves, making the leaf taste unpleasant to the insect which causes them to move on. Trees need to care for one another to create the safety that a forest provides.

Mutually beneficial relationship. Plants and fungi are engaged in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship, this means they depend on each other to be able to develop and survive. Essentially, the fungi not only provide a super highway communication for trees but they also provide an increase in nutrients and water absorption capabilities for trees. This is only possible because the composition of fungi called hyphae ( a network of fine filaments). Fungi are able to reach the nutrients and water that the tree cannot and in return the tree provides the fungi with carbohydrates and sugar from photosynthesis.

Summary. The book shows us that trees do in fact do communicate in their own way. However, it raises more questions to whether trees might even be able to ‘feel’ at a higher level than we can yet prove. Hopefully, some further research
will enlighten us, but for now, we know that trees communicate through a network of roots & fungi almost like the World Wide Web.

Reference:

Wohlleben, Peter. Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World. S.l.: Black, 2016. Print.
Fleming, Mic. “Plants Talk to Each Other Using an Internet of Fungus.” BBC Earth. BBC, 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.

“Relationships between Plants and Fungi.” Intimate Relationships, http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/fungi/relationships.

Favorite