How Trees Secretly Talk to Each Other in the Forest | Decoder

Ouch! What do you think you’re doing? The idea of talking trees has been capturing the human imagination for generations. Did you say something? My bark is worse than my bite. Okay, so maybe they don’t talk to us, but it turns out, trees can “talk” to each other. The trees are speaking to each other. But that does beg the question: What do trees have to talk about? And can we learn to speak their language? Underneath the soil, a vast and interconnected network of life links the trees through their root systems. But, they can’t talk to each other without help. The whole process starts with hub trees—the oldest and tallest trees in the forest. Hub trees have greater access to sunlight, and through the process of photosynthesis, end up producing more sugar than they actually need. Underground, fungi need sugar to survive. Most of their bodies are made up of a mass of threads called “mycelium.” They grow within the root system of trees to absorb the excess sugar. In return, the mycelium provides the tree with the nutrients it needs from the soil. This symbiotic relationship is known as mycorrhiza, which stems from the Greek words for fungus and root. These tree-fungi relationships connect the trees in the forest together, forming an underground communication network to exchange water and nutrients, to nurture their seedlings, and even send warning signals when under threat. So, how many trees are really talking to each other? To get a better picture of these forest relationships, a team of researchers used DNA analysis to map a fungal network in a patch of Canadian forest. Remarkably, they found that one tree was connected to 47 other trees! Their models also showed that when hub trees were removed, it would cause more connections to be lost than if trees were simply removed randomly. Studying these kinds of underground exchanges will play a vital role in creating stronger, more resilient forests for the future. So, even though we might not be able to “talk” to trees, at least we can still keep trying to understand their language. Who knows what they might say?

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 512,825

Rating: 4.9158206 out of 5

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, documentary, trees, talking trees, communication, mycorrhizae, symbiotic relationship, fungi, forests, douglas fir, PLivjPDlt6ApTjurXykShuUqp7LQcj9s8s, PLivjPDlt6ApRiBHpsyXWG22G8RPNZ6jlb, PLivjPDlt6ApRfQqtRw7JkGCLvezGeMBB2, Trees Secretly Talk, trees talk about, Douglas fir forests, forests of Canada, symbiotic relationships, Talk to Each Other, How Trees Secretly, Forest

Id: 7kHZ0a_6TxY

Length: 3min 41sec (221 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 11 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Magjee]

A little off-topic, reminded me of the weirwood.net

Trees interacting with fungi to be able to "talk" to each other

[u/[deleted]]

Alex Jones died for this.

[u/teh1knocker]

/r/gameofthrones will like this.

[u/GyantSpyder]

Yeah, I tend to think that the weirwoods are connected by a mycelium, and it's the fungus that has telepathic powers and agency more than the trees do. And that the fungus can also get into people's bloodstreams and reanimate them or influence their minds.

Specifically, I think the magic fungus is based somewhat superficially on fomes fomenatius, the Ice Man Fungus, also known as the Tinder Fungus (a mushroom of ice and fire), which is a tree fungus that has a bunch of relevant characteristics relative to the worldbuilding in the story:

• It is very flammable and is used to make fire in real life - this would explain some phenomena for fire magic - in particular the ability of people like Beric Dondarion to produce fire from their blood, or the ability to pass magical reanimation from person to person by a fiery kiss.
• This would also explain why priests of R'hllor burn the weirwood trees to kill them, and why weirwood seems to burn very hot and even explode (like the statues of the Seven likely made of weirwood that burn in ACoK)
• It produces melanin inside its hosts; trees infected with it get these black veins in them. This would explain the black blood of reanimated fire wights.
• It also produces white rot, turning the wood of trees it infects white. Weirwood is, of course, white. But white rot makes trees soft, whereas over time, weirwoods turn to stone.
• It consumes its dead hosts slowly, over the course of years, and it can also live within living hosts with them never showing any symptoms - so it doesn't bother the weirwoods.
• It enters trees through cuts in the bark, explaining why the weirwoods have faces - somebody cut the trees in order to introduce the fungus into them.
• It provides a partial explanation for Targaryen madness. It is a folk tale that if a king is not worthy of sitting on the Iron Throne, the throne will reject them. This can be taken as an observed correlation between kings who cut themselves on the throne and kings who had mental problems. We see both Aerys II and Joffrey cut themselves on the Iron Throne, and both are self-destructive and have obvious mental problems. As it enters trees through the bark, it might also enter people through cuts in their skin.
• If weirwood sap and human blood are similar, then the flammable fungus might feed on both of them. This might account for part of the connection between fire and blood in blood magic.

There are also a bunch of other things in the story that make sense if the magic that holds together the weirwood net is a psychic fungus:

• Salt is a home remedy used to kill fungus. The ritual of Guest Right and the rituals of the Old Way both require people to drink salt water before coming into home base. If ancient peoples knew how this fungus operated and were trying to stop it from taking over their populations, they might have developed these rituals to make sure only trusted humans without the fungus's influence came into their homes.
• It also explains the ritual of taking a "salt wife" - women kidnapped from the mainland are likely infected with the fungus and need to be cleansed with salt water. It also explains why these women are not permitted full marriages and are not trusted, at least historically. The fact that only the women are said to go through this ritual would suggest it might be sexual in nature - like the Ironborn tradition might be to avoid the sexual transmission of the fungus.
• It also explains a bunch of the other rules in the Old Way - like how you are not allowed to hang around agriculture, and you're definitely not allowed to go mining underground, but you're allowed to fish because fish are safe. And also that you're not allowed to besiege a castle, because this requires you to stay on the mainland too long, making you vulnerable to the fungus. It also explains why in Ironborn medicine they use fire and seawater on all wounds.
• If the fungus is a key element in the telepathic magic of the Children of the Forest, it might also be part of the magic of the Others, which is likely related. This would explain why the Others don't just pass through salt water, or why the Wall is effective at stopping them, as the Wall is made of salt water (Bran tastes it).
• This, by the way, is comparable to how the Dothraki call the ocean "poison water," with the Narrow Sea acting as an effective barrier keeping them out.
• If the fungus drinks human blood, it would explain somewhat why it seeks to provoke wars among people or compels them to human sacrifice at the base of the trees it inhabits (along with population control).
• And if blood feeds the fungus, this would explain the rule in Vaes Dothrak that blood is not allowed to be shed inside the city - to prevent the fungus from growing underground there.
• Silver suspended in solution also kills fungus. To enter Vaes Dothrak, you have to bring gifts of salt and silver as well as seed.