I spend a lot of time thinking about life: what a miracle it is that we are here, that you are by chance reading the words on this screen, that we can express our thoughts in ways that others will understand. It’s all astonishing. I think about how young we are, compared to the age of our Earth and the other life with which we share our planet. In the book, The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green explores intriguing phenomena in our Anthropocene. The Anthropocene refers to our current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. Green helps frame our perspective on the age of the Earth and our beautiful insignificance. He writes:
“Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, a timescale I simply cannot get my head around. Instead, let’s imagine Earth’s history as a calendar year, with the formation of Earth being January 1, and today being December 31st at 11:59pm. The first life on Earth emerges around February 25. Photosynthetic organisms first appear in late March. Multicellular life doesn’t appear until August or September. The first dinosaurs like Eoraptor show up about 230 million years ago, or December 13th in our calendar year. The meteor impact that heralds the end of the dinosaurs happens around December 26th. Homo sapiens aren’t part of the story until December 31st at 11:48pm.”
Everything that we know as modern life – the Industrial Revolution, the invention of cars, and so forth – happens in the last few seconds of this calendar year. Trees have an ancestry of over 400 million years, compared to Homo Sapiens 200,000 years. The first trees on Earth developed the first vascular systems, meaning that they could grow trunk-like systems into the air, rather than living close to the ground like bushes or moss. 400 million years is a lot of time to learn, grow, and change, and trees have evolved extensively since those first iterations. I wonder how life before us prospered, what we might learn from various forms of life, and how we may have been detrimental to or supportive of their success.
This raises the question, What makes other species so successful? Some degree of language and communication are prevalent in all animal species. Trees can in fact communicate with one another. It may not be the same way we communicate, but it’s just as fascinating. Trees have the advantage of a symbiotic relationship. A symbiotic relationship is beneficial to both parties. One symbiotic relationship that I see almost every day here at the retreat center is the bees and flowers. The bees benefit from the nectar from the flowers, and the flowers get help pollinating. The name for the symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi is a mycorrhizal (migh-koh-RIGH-zuhl) association. A network of fungi connects underground to the roots of the trees. The fungi rely on the trees for nutrients since they cannot photosynthesize. The trees receive nutrients through the fungi that they otherwise would be unable to reach. The mycorrhizal fungi can reach over 700 times more soil than the trees’ own roots. As trees and fungi grow, connections between more trees and fungi proliferate, creating what dendrologists like to call the “wood-wide-web.”
What is so interesting is that this communication occurs between varied species of trees. There is no communication barrier, which allows for many more opportunities for information and resource sharing between trees. “What could trees have to talk about?” you ask. They communicate by sharing information and resources. Trees send carbon, water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other resources through the mycorrhizal network. Trees want their neighbors to succeed and have the resources they need to thrive. Even more intriguing, there are the elders of the forests, referred to as “mother trees,” named for their caring, providing nature. These mother trees help raise the forest, can recognize their own kin, and pass off resources and information to their kin when they are dying. To find out how these mother trees could recognize their kin, scientists placed stranger seedlings and their own seedlings next to the mother tree. As time went on, mother trees sent more resources to their own seedlings. The mother trees can even shrink their own roots to make room for their kin.
The image posted at the head of this blog depicts a phenomenon called “crown-shyness.” Pause with me and take a minute to think about what message that brings up for you on how trees live and prosper. It almost seems like they’re holding space for one another. They’re allowing their neighbors to have equal chance at the same sun as them. This phenomenon is quite inspiring as it shows nature’s ability to care for itself.
There are so many examples of nature looking out for itself, creating life from the ashes, being born again. Trees have many lessons that we can learn from them. All it takes is for us to sit and be with them for a while. I encourage you this week, sit with a tree outside, watch how its branches sway in the wind, how its leaves almost sparkle, and its steady, unwavering presence. Spending just 20 minutes outside can lower your cortisol levels and help you reconnect with the world around you.
I hope you find a quiet moment to listen to all that nature has to say, especially the trees.
Megan van Deusen is the Nature Educator and Facilities Coordinator at Mount Olivet Conference & Retreat Center. She is a K-8 certified public school educator with specialties in science and math and also excels at cooking and baking, both at home and at work.
Megan, I find your blog to be SO interesting! You weave together science and art seamlessly, giving us factual information in a way that ends up being inspiring. I was especially struck by how the fungi can reach 700 times more soil than the trees’ roots can. I read Richard Powers’ novel, The Overstory, twice and learned so much about trees there. Your blog brings up the same kind of awe and wonder that I experienced reading his book. I will think of you when I go outside to my favorite spot and look at the trees in my front yard. THANK YOU for starting my day with wonder!