interventions: Trees Communicate
Some research has shown that trees have a unique way of expressing themselves to one another.
About twenty years ago, an ecologist named Suzanne Simard “discovered that trees communicate their needs and send each other nutrients via a network of latticed fungi buried in the soil.” She has continued her research to learn how trees, using fungal filigrees, “send warning signals about environmental change, search for kin, and transfer their nutrients to neighboring plants before they die.” Dr. Simard tells us all trees form symbiotic relationships with fungi. Fungi cannot photosynthesize, but they can explore the soil. Part of the fungi, called mycelium, will pick up nutrients and water and bring it back to the tree. The tree then exchanges these offerings from the fungi for a sugar-like substance the tree makes during photosynthesis.
This underground network is one avenue with which trees exchange information.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/26/882828756/suzanne-simard-how-do-trees-collaborate
e360.yale.edu/features/exploring_how_and_why_trees_talk_to_each_other
The selection of images below documents four out of five rogue events installed in 2020, New York, NY,
materials: acrylic paint, acid-free ink, archival arches paper (19 X 26 and 30 X 22 inches)
