Communication among Trees

They noticed that the antelopes in South Africa were dying after eating the leaves of the acacia tree of the region. At first they did not understand the reason for this mortality. Later they noted that because of the drought in this region, the antelopes, having no grass, were eating the leaves of the acacia trees. Faced with a lack of clues to understand this mortality, an academic had the idea of observing the stomach of a dead antelope and found that the acacia leaves in the antelope's stomach were not digested. Analysing the leaves it was seen that they had an abnormally high quantity of tannin, something the leaves generally produce to protect themselves from parasites and microbes.

The scientists asked themselves whether there was a relation between the mortality of the antelopes and the high tannin in the leaves. They made another test: they struck the trees with force and saw that the proportion of tannin in the leaves rose far above normal. In nature the antelopes should eat their grasses, but because of the drought they had no other remedy than to eat the acacia leaves, and with this they were poisoned and died.

In his book 'The Hidden Life of Trees', Peter Wohlleben says that trees have a very elaborate language, special among themselves; a language formed of smells and of electrical signals. A language also through the roots, to communicate with one another and to give one another news of insects, of the dryness of the earth, to combat danger, to have a collective defence and to adapt to changes in the climate. The roots of the tree spread over an area double its height. This makes the branches of the roots contact the branches of the roots of the other tree, which makes the news propagate at 1 cm per second, and the other trees begin to defend themselves. What is interesting is that this defence is noted only in the forest environment; in the agricultural zone the vegetation remains mute. As the hand of man touched and changed the natural life of agriculture, the contact of root or of smell no longer functions. Another more delicious message is the perfume that certain trees send through their flowers to call the bees that transmit the pollen, which is necessary for multiplication.

What a great marvel Nature is, an endless world of secrets, and how happy we feel when we learn its secrets.