October 05, 2016
from MessageToEagle Website


 

Is it possible that trees can actually talk to each other?

Actually, it is highly possible. Scientists call the secret communication of trees Wood Wide Web and just like the term implies, the information exchange resembles internet.

Forester Peter Wohlleben discusses this fascinating theory in his best-selling book The Hidden Life of Trees - What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World.

Peter Wohlleben spent over twenty years working for the forestry commission in Germany before leaving to put his ideas of ecology into practice. He now runs an environmentally-friendly woodland in Germany, where he is working for the return of primeval forests.

He is the author of numerous books about trees.
 

The Hidden Life of Trees:

What They Feel, How They Communicate

Discoveries from a Secret World

Are trees social beings?

 

In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network.

 

He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families:

tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers.

Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.

After learning about the complex life of trees, a walk in the woods will never be the same again.

According to Wohlleben, trees support each other with help of social networks.

The trees' roots are responsible for communication. They are brain-like structures and there are brain-like process going on. Just like in our nerves, there are chemical and electrical signals and they can transport information about, for example insects.

The mother tree can check with its roots the condition on younger trees, and recognize whether the smaller tree is its own child or a stranger's child.

A young tree is suckled by their mother, like human babies. The roots are not going all over the ground. Therefore the tree uses a fungal network that also transports information to next trees and to trees much further away.

The process is similar to internet and it is therefore called by scientists the Wood Wide Web.

"Trees care for each other because one tree is not a forest," Wohlleben says.

Trees can communicate
 

In the article Ten Fascinating Facts about Plants, we have seen that the remarkable and secret world of plants is full of discoveries that astonish us.

Plants are much more complex and intelligent that we have previously believed. Not only can they sing, dance, avoid predators and much more, but they also contain hidden maps and surprises that reveal they share many similar properties with humans.

So the idea that trees can communicate with each other is by no means far-fetched and it only shows there are still many things we don't know about the wonderful world of nature.