How do trees communicate?

[The Straight Story]

How do trees communicate

Find yourself a patch of forest. Sit among the trees and if you're quiet (and a breeze is blowing) you'll hear whispering and moaning. Folktales and legends say it's the trees speaking to us. As Dr. Seuss's Lorax points out, trees can't really speak to us directly – at least not using words.

But even if they can't speak, trees can indeed communicate. Back in 1982 Ian Baldwin, currently director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, published a paper showing that young trees that were damaged as if attacked by hungry insects increased production of tannins and several other chemical compounds. Those chemicals were known to inhibit growth and foraging of insect larvae and so presumably helped defend the trees from further attack. They also discovered that undamaged trees in the same enclosure started producing similar compounds. Baldwin and his colleagues concluded that the damaged trees were releasing volatile compounds into the air. Those chemicals served to warn the undamaged trees of potential danger, and induced them to begin to mount their own defenses.

Since then. advanced molecular analysis and genetics have been used to study the so-called "talking tree" phenomenon in more detail. Plant leaves release a number of different chemicals, from simple small molecules like ethylene to more complex compounds like methyl jasmonate. These compounds diffuse through the air, and if they come in contact with the leaves of responsive plants, those plants respond with changes in chemical synthesis and growth.

Plant roots also secrete a number of different communicating chemicals. These compounds aren't able to travel as far through the soil as volatile compounds can drift through the air. Instead they locally fight of insect pests and battle nearby plants for growing room. Those chemical signals are also in the process of being deciphered, and that information is already being used to genetically engineer pest-fighting crops.

http://io9.com/#!5792863/how-do-trees-communicate-without-the-lorax

[Motown_Johnny]

1. They Bark

just kidding

[cognoscere]

2. Good one. N/T

[demosincebirth]

4. Quick wit!

[Better Believe It]

8. I heard the top of a house roof just like a dog!

:silly:

[SpiralHawk]

3. Scooter Libby (R) has some special occultist republicon insights into this

Apparently, the aspens told him and his chickenhawk Republicon puppetmasters how they could team up with the New York Times to lie the USA into a huge, needless, Crusade that would bring death and destruction to thousands, accomplish doodley squat in the realm of good, and meanwhile bodaciously enrich their Republicon cronies.

Corruptly intertwined roots & Occult Black Magic -Republicon specialites.

[Snoutport]

5. I saw an article in NOVA magazine or Science something or other in the 80s

another study that put energy monitors on trees throughout this forest and then started chopping one of them down. The trees all around were reacting. It was somewhat haunting to think about it.

"Oh my God!! They are chopping down Marge!!!"

[DeeJay]

6. Those same chemicals also affect human brains

in positive ways. Stress reduction, for one.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=green%20odor

[snagglepuss]

13. O dreamy, gloomy, friendly Trees,

O dreamy, gloomy, friendly Trees,
I came along your narrow track
To bring my gifts unto your knees
And gifts did you give back;
For when I brought this heart that burns--
These thoughts that bitterly repine--
And laid them here among the ferns
And the hum of boughs divine,
Ye, vastest breathers of the air,
Shook down with slow and mighty poise
Your coolness on the human care,
Your wonder on its toys,
Your greenness on the heart's despair,
Your darkness on its noise.

Frederic Herbert Trench




Welcome to DU. :hi:

[Rebubula]

7. These Folks Know...

[BobbyBoring]

9. Trees are a great starting point

If you're interested in learning how to see auras. Their energy is very visible once you know how to see it!

[L0oniX]

10. They leaf a message.

[Zorra]

11. Telepathic and physical emanation. nt

[glinda]

12. Love the sound of poplar leaves clicking in the wind.

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. They scream. The anguished cries of the damned. n/t

[MindPilot]

15. logarithms?

[uncle ray]

16. they have their own subreddit.

did i say too much?

[thereismore]

17. What about? Consistency of squirrell droppings? nt

[undeterred]

18. I've seen some of them wearing signs.

:hide:

[ohiosmith]

19. Through the grapevine.

:shrug:

[Moosepoop]

20. They're making shady deals.

:+

[KurtNYC]

21. Hopefully it is not by falling in the forest bc I have heard...

..actually I haven't heard anything about trees falling in the forest come to think of it. Never mind.