The Hidden Life of Trees

fairy tales of trees with human faces, trees that can talk, and sometimes walk.

The trees don’t want to take anything away from each other, and so they develop sturdy branches only at the outer edges of their crowns, that is to say, only in the direction of “non-friends.”

Life in the slow lane is clearly not always dull.

fairy tales of trees with human faces, trees that can talk, and sometimes walk.

The roots of forest trees don’t actually grow very deep

lovingly cared for and watered

Every fall, their roots are trimmed

One of the oldest trees on Earth, a spruce in Sweden, is more than 9,500 years old

HoW does WaTer ge

Trees can groW

They grow considerably more slowly, clearly

tree stockpiles water in winter.

Only the pine has the cheek to greedily redirect its crown toward the light. No wonder the pine is the conifer with the highest rate of breakage because of snow.

It is Nature herself that forces the trees to adopt such growth patterns.

Dr. Suzanne Simard, who helped discover maternal instincts in trees, describes mother trees as dominant trees widely linked to other trees in the forest through their fungal–root connections.

Scientists have determined that slow growth when the tree is young is 33
a prerequisite if a tree is to live to a ripe old age.

The forest is not sick, but it is vulnerable. The trees use the last of their energy reserves to produce the mass of blossoms, and to compound the problem, they are left with fewer leaves, so they produce less sugar than they normally do. Further-more, most of the sugar they do produce is converted into oil and starch in the seeds, so there is hardly any left over for the trees’ daily needs and winter stores—to say nothing of the energy reserves intended to defend against sickness.

completely isolated stands of rare species of trees, where only a few trees grow, can lose their genetic diversity.

The bees must first fly to the male willows, collect pollen there, and then transport the pollen to the female trees. If it was the other way around, there would be no fertilization.

thousands of wild flowers and shrubs blooming in such places, and they attract bees, willows, like bird cherries, also rely on insects for pollination.