Strange Forest 'Superorganism' Is Keeping This Vampire Tree Alive

[Judi Lynn]

By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | July 25, 2019 11:48am ET



The stump in question looks like the last standing wall of a great ruined fortress. Beneath the soil, it’s still alive.
Credit: Sebastian Leuzinger / iScience
In a forest in New Zealand, a vampire clings to life.

Once a mighty kauri tree — a species of conifer that can grow up to 165 feet (50 meters) tall — the low, leafless stump looks like it should be long dead. But, as a new study published today (July 25) in the journal iScience reminds us, looks are only surface-deep.

Below the soil, the study authors wrote, the stump is part of a forest "superorganism" — a network of intertwined roots sharing resources across a community that could include dozens or hundreds of trees. By grafting its roots onto its neighbors' roots, the kauri stump feeds at night on water and nutrients that other trees have collected during the day, staying alive thanks to their hard work.

"For the stump, the advantages are obvious — it would be dead without the grafts, because it doesn't have any green tissue of its own," study co-author Sebastian Leuzinger, an associate professor at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, said in a statement. "But why would the green trees keep their grandpa tree alive on the forest floor while it doesn't seem to provide anything for its host trees?"

Leuzinger and his colleagues tried to answer that by studying nutrient flow through the vampire stump and its two closest neighbors. Using several sensors to measure the movement of water and sap (which contains important nutrients) through the three trees, the team saw a curious pattern: the stump and its neighbors seemed to be drinking up water at exact opposite times.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/66025-kauri-tree-superorganism-root-grafting.html

[Midnight Writer]

1. So, the trees are socialist? The trees are working together and sharing resources for common good?

It's almost as if there is a natural design for cooperation.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Amazing. Even though it seems dead it does contribute to the group in its own way,

and it even takes nutriment at a different time during the day and doesn't drain the system when other trees are extracting what they need.

It's deeply interesting.

Thanks for your comment.