Description
EXCERPT:
An encoded scent whiffed across to a neighbouring tree. It had a complex message in the transparent envelope. The postman did not deliver it. Mister Wind carried it with unseen dedication. Leaf-to-leaf, the proverbial ‘drums’ had the detailed message.
The ‘letter’ in the envelope read:
“Red Alert! There is an insect attack on me! Prepare – chemically – to protect yourself (the tree).”
“Hey, I have to do something – quick. Insects are in the tree next to me,” whispered the leaves of the large Birch tree.
It took about 20 minutes. The leaves of the tree turned ‘bitter.’ Inedible. The insects left the second tree without touching a leaf.
This is a simple example of how trees in a forest work together to warn and protect one another. They use messages we humans can’t see.
The Secret Life of Trees
I have recently downloaded an audiobook from Audible with the title The Secret Life of Trees – the editor’s choice. When I listened to the foreword and the first chapter, a clear bell rang in my head.
Trees are more, much more than what we ever expected. The fantastic book by Peter Wohlleben – The Secret Life of Trees – confirms the many books and videos that are out there claiming the ‘Gospel’. What trees are to us, or for us, or to us is mind-blowing. They are relational miracles. They do not exist independently but their own entangled, complex, and symbiotic webs of inter-being. They are constantly communicating with one another. They use chemical signals which they dispatch along with the fungal networks that live in their roots. You will be stunned by the revelation of the invisible, astonishing underworld – and upper-world – only recently discovered.
Then I will produce a link to an unexpected source you would never have thought of in your wildest dreams. Wait for it.
The Red Mangrove. From the sketchbook of the author. How would Mangroves communicate, considering their root systems and the surrounding saltwater? Environmentalists tend to think of mangroves’ ecological role mostly in terms of protection from storms and nurseries for fish. As climate change threatens to increase the frequency and severity of storms, mangroves provide a stout defence against storm surge. Mangrove roots also provide habitats for fish and shellfish, crucial to sustainable livelihoods for coastal communities. William Van Zyl.
