#03 interspecies communication - messages to Man

According to UBC Forestry Professor Suzanne Simard trees can really communicate to one another.
In nature, some fungi live inside the roots of trees and form mycorrhizas (literally “fungus-roots”). These fungi help trees acquire nutrients and water from the soil in exchange for carbon. Then, mycorrhizas can establish a mycorrhizal network which trees use to communicate in different languages such as carbon, nitrogen and water.

By measuring the flow and sharing of carbon (using radioactive carbon) between individual trees and species, she discovered that birch and Douglas fir share carbon among other elements. Birch trees receive extra carbon from Douglas firs when the birch trees lose their leaves, and birch trees supply carbon to Douglas fir trees that are in the shade.

Cooperation.
In the forest, trees do not compete to each other, they cooperate resiliently.

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Like Yin & Yang, some trees have developed into interdependent species. They found out a way to live together and to cooperate to thrive.

In Braga, at a former landlord house, now a home-decor store - “Casa do Passadiço”, are standing two majestic trees: a Ginkgo Biloba and an American tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera).

84 year old photograph hanging on the wall at “Frigideiras do Cantinho” - not every tree managed to survive