The Tree Society!

When I was little I used to imagine tress teaching to younger tress... Do they? The normal answer is NO. But according to scientists , the answer is YES

  But after finishing an amazing book called: Hidden Life of Trees, my all thoughts turned upside down. My science teacher recommended reading this book. One day, I and my father were searching for something else and found that book. We bought that book immediately. It was an amazing read that I couldn't stop reading, even in PE period in school!

I've written one about trees communicating with each other, in this blog before. But this book not only discusses tree - talks, but it also talks about how do they live in a community, how a tree works! 

  The author Peter Wollheben is a german forest officer and he wrote this book by his observations in his forest. He also wrote another book called Inner Life of animals in this series. He gives examples by his observations in the deciduous forest. 

 I wasn't much familiar with the tress in deciduous forests, but as it was about tress in general, I didn't have a problem reading it. My favorite one is the 'Tree school'. Can trees learn? Well, this one is the most interesting topic for me. He explains an experiment by Dr.Gagalliano who kept putting water drops continuously on the touch-me-not plant (Mimosa Pudica) and found that the plants stopped covering their leaves after some time, as they learned water drops aren't harmful. But where do they collect all the memories? 

 

 And Peter Wollheben also writes about the competition among the trees! When there is the biggest/oldest which is called as mother tree in the forest, the little growing trees around it will be covered under this tree. The small trees get sunlight which is only sufficient to make very little food. So the big tree shares its food through the mycelium network. But when it dies, all the other trees try to get the place of the Mother tree, so that they can get more sunlight. Isn't it just like a running race?

  This book made me to feel like I'm reading a fairy tale. It is written is very simple language and made me to explore more about trees outside the book.   

 Wollhenben's real-life examples are the most attractive thing in the book. Some mentions of other experiments by students made me wonder. I loved his style of writing. It was a wonderful concept written wonderfully. 

  Now whenever I visit the forest, I remember this book. Who knows? Maybe in future, the human may be able to talk with trees... How nice it would be...