The Secret Life of Trees: What you don’t know about trees!
How long has it been since you cared about the trees around you? Have you ever thought about the fact that every tree has its own personality? Even the trees in the forest will cooperate with each other and send charcoal in the snow. What’s more, the big trees will be strict enough to educate the small trees?
Today’s book, “The Secret Life of Trees,” is a delicate little book that uses thirty-six wonderful forest stories to take readers on a journey through the secrets of trees. The author, a former forester, is now employed as a forest janitor in the small town of Hummel, where he is responsible for guarding the 1,200 acres of virgin forest.
The book is highly readable, with the author’s rich forestry experience, funny casual tone, and solid theoretical knowledge, bringing the reader an interesting journey of forest exploration. It is a fascinating and thoughtful journey that makes people reflect on the relationship between nature and human beings. In this article, let me share with you some interesting excerpts!
Not only describes the secret life of trees, but also the story of the whole forest, all life, including plants, animals, and fungus, treating the forest as a whole symbiotic structure.
-Ming Wu
The Secret of Trees
About trees, people often don’t care much. At most, they go into the forest once in a while to enjoy the phentermine; they bathe in the greenery, and then return to the city and don’t even bother to know what the roadside trees look like. But trees, such a long-lived species, deserve to be known more.
[Tree’s Ego
Does a tree have an ego? We must admit that this may be an exaggeration, but some of the behaviors of trees do make it worthwhile to consider whether the concept of “self” is also applicable to plants.
For example, the life of a tree is very much about balance. They must be able to allocate their energy in a calculating manner in order to take care of all their needs. It needs the energy to grow, to grow longer branches and stronger trunks, to store up energy to protect itself against insect or disease attacks and to release defensive substances, and even to distract itself from the important but very energy-intensive task of reproduction.
In addition, there is another phenomenon that we may see as normal but is actually quite unbelievable: in autumn, the leaves fall and fade, and in spring, new buds bloom. This means that the tree can feel the difference in temperature, but this is not enough. Because the temperature in late summer or early spring may be more or less the same. Therefore, trees must also be able to judge temperature changes in order to calculate the length of day and night. For example, a gradual rise in temperature is spring, and the beech will wait until daylight 13 hours before it starts to shine and sprout.
Trees may have different personalities like the author said that the three oaks near his home have different strategies when facing seasonal changes. When the oak tree on the right for its own leaves tinted with gold, the two companions next door, but still unmoved, the thick green remains. Obviously, to continue photosynthesis while it is still warm to store more food for the winter, or as soon as possible to fall leaves, so as not to suddenly enter the winter, the leaves will be frozen, the trees are obviously different ideas.
Of course, you may say that this is the natural evolution of the trees, so it seems to be a bit of a brain patch. But I think it is not the same for human beings. We also put on coats during cold snaps, try to eat high protein to get stronger and sleep more when we see our liver index soaring. So what is the difference between these “self-adjustments” and trees?
Different trees may have different ideas about whether to put on autumn leaves or not
Tree parenting
Do trees know how to educate young trees? We have to start with the growth of small trees. A small tree in the forest grows very slowly, to be honest. For example, a one or two-meter beech tree may look young at first glance, but it is actually 80 years old or even older. In a state where the environment allows, it is not a problem for a small tree to grow half a meter tall in one growing season, but the problem is that the mother tree does not agree.
The mother tree will use its huge and luxuriant canopy to keep all the small trees under its umbrella, in this case, only 3% of the sunlight can reach the small trees. It is hard enough just to try to survive by photosynthesis, let alone to grow and thrive. The mother tree is using light control to teach the young tree to grow slowly. But why is it so severe?
Research shows that the mother tree is actually well-intentioned, and that slow growth during adolescence is a prerequisite for the tree’s longevity in the future. Because when trees grow slowly, their wood cells are very small and have little air content. This allows them to withstand the threat of storms and makes it difficult for fungi to spread.
Small trees usually have to wait until the parent tree ends its life and collapses to find the opportunity to grow up quickly by drawing sunlight. Until then, it’s just a matter of waiting. After all, it’s for their own good!
[Friendship of Trees]
I’m afraid that trees communicate with each other more often and more intimately than you might think. The author mentioned that he once found a beech stump in the forest that was still alive. But how did the stump, which had no branches or leaves and was unable to perform photosynthesis, survive? The answer is: the support of companions!
Trees will send nutrients and even exchange information with each other through their roots, forming a common body concept. Some studies have found that trees can clearly distinguish the differences between their root systems and those of other tree species. But why should they help each other?
Because in the forest, we can not do it alone, dead trees will make more gaps in the canopy, so that the storm can take advantage of, and the heat from the gaps will also make the soil dry, so it is very important to maintain a common body. Some studies have even found that trees automatically adjust to differences in strength and weakness, redistributing productivity, so that even in poor water storage or poor soil growing in disadvantaged groups, still have access to resources. The authors jokingly call this the social welfare system of trees.
Human beings always praise the survival of the fittest, but I am afraid that trees do not agree with this argument. If the weak disappear, the result may be a total loss.
How much do you know about trees?
The secret of the forest
The forest is actually an ecosystem, in which there are thousands of species besides trees, supporting each other, competing, eating, and being eaten, and it can be said that the relationship is incessant and confusing.
[Trees and fungi
The relationship between trees and fungi is so complex that it deserves a good description. Generally speaking, I am afraid that trees are not sensitive to fungi, because if they are not careful, the bark of the tree is injured, the fungus may be invaded, and in serious cases, they may die. Therefore, trees will secrete phentermine to antibacterial, no wonder walking into the forest is always refreshing.
But fungi and trees are not just enemies. Since millions of years ago, trees and certain fungi have shared a common bond. Fungi can effectively increase the surface area of tree roots, thereby absorbing more water and nutrients. In addition, as mentioned earlier, trees use their roots to create a strong social network to keep each other warm. However, the roots alone are not enough, so we need to form a larger and denser underground network through fungi.
Of course, fungi do not do this work for free, and trees have to pay for nutrients in exchange, which can be as much as one-third of their total production. Of course, fungi occasionally provide additional services, such as filtering the soil for heavy metals or helping to defend against attacks by other species of fungi, for example, Sabrina.
Fungi and trees are inextricably linked
Trees and animals
The love/hate relationship between trees and forest animals is even more complex. As you may already know, many trees need animals to pass on their heritage. But at the same time, for many animals, the forest trees are like a rich storehouse of food. But getting to the food requires a little finesse because of the hard bark on the outside.
Woodpeckers are very skilled, and with their unique body structure, they are able to peck out a bunch of small holes in the tree with a quick tap of their heads, and then enjoy the sap with pleasure.
Aphids use a different, lazy method: hanging their mouthparts directly on the veins of the leaves. In fact, aphids only suck the protein from the sap, while other carbohydrates (such as sugar) are excreted. This is why many animals love aphids. Mountain ants, for example, will follow the aphid’s back and lick the honeydew directly from its buttocks. To protect their food source, ants will even act as aphids’ bodyguards to keep them from being attacked by other predators.
Caterpillars are another formidable enemy of trees. They do not love sugar and vow to chew up all the leaves. The author mentioned that he once saw an oak tree in the forest where all the young leaves had disappeared and were surprised when suddenly there was a loud sound like a rainstorm, and only when he looked at it did he realize that millions of small droppings of green leaf-rolling moth caterpillars had fallen from the sky ……
Trees sometimes emit odors that call for the insects of the family of the honey bee to help, because they will lay their eggs in the caterpillars, and the larvae can begin to swallow the caterpillars after they hatch. Some trees also secrete dense glands in their leaves to attract ants to lick them, as they sometimes eat caterpillars in the process. However, there are times when the ants may not be satisfied with the sweetness secreted by the tree and start feeding on the aphids, which would be a big disaster for the tree.
Aphids that suck sap and drain sugar are the favorite food of ladybugs
Postscript: About trees, we always care too little]
In the process of reading this book, I can feel the author’s deep feelings for trees. I believe that this is what allowed him to write a wonderful forest story. Of course, the process will inevitably make people feel a bit too “animal” to write about trees as creatures. As if the trees have intelligence?
But perhaps, as the author says, the human classification of animals and plants is too arbitrary, based mainly on the way to get food (plants: photosynthesis; animals: predation on other creatures). In the end, the biggest difference between animals and plants is only the length of time it takes to process information and convert it into action. The distinction between plants and animals is perhaps much more blurred than one might think.
In addition, I think the book’s insight into ecology also makes me think deeply. The ideal ecology should be a balanced concept. We depend on each other, take from each other, eat and be eaten, use and be used, and follow some kind of constancy in the underworld. Although plants and animals do not have human intelligence, they are less likely to overuse the environment.
Those who are too greedy to take but never to give will eventually lose their basis of survival and become extinct.
In addition, many of the forms created by society nowadays are actually very fragile. For example, the author mentions that agriculture nowadays, in the process of breeding and reproduction, often loses the ability to communicate in the underground network, and must rely on pesticides to fight against pests.
And the trees in the city, in fact, also live very unhealthily. Because people do not plant trees for their well-being. For example, saplings are pruned every year to make it easier to plant them, and their crowns are shaved. In addition, without the parent tree’s upbringing, the young trees grow indiscriminately, resulting in large, airy cells that are the favorite of fungi. The author jokingly says that urban trees are like street children who have left the forest and failed to grow up soundly.
Perhaps it is difficult for human beings to care about trees. But in today’s world of advocating for one family, perhaps we should not only look at the human beings themselves. Next time you see trees on the roadside, take a look at them and touch them. Maybe it is not so different from you?
If the capabilities of plants are better known and their sensory life and needs are generally recognized, then the way we deal with plants should gradually change.
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