Can You Hear the Trees Talking?

2 ideas

1. Acacias warn neighbors when giraffes browse

   On the African savanna, acacias being eaten by giraffes raise the level of bitter tannins in their leaves within minutes. They also release ethylene gas, which primes nearby acacias downwind to raise their own defenses. Giraffes respond by skipping adjacent trees or moving upwind before feeding again, and this is the best-supported example of an airborne plant signal the book offers.

2. Fungal networks as underground exchange

   Mycorrhizal fungi wrap tree roots and trade soil water and minerals for sugars the tree makes, and their threads can link many trees into a shared network. The book presents this network as a channel through which trees pass nutrients and warnings to one another. That the fungal partnership exists is well established. Field evidence that significant resources or signals actually move between trees this way is thin and actively disputed.

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