The Trees That Talk
If someone told you that trees could speak to one another, exchange information, and communicate would you believe it? It sounds like the stuff of children’s fables. And yet, science has recently confirmed that this particular fairy tale is, in fact, real.
« Trees exchange information and nutrients with one another »
Suzanne Simard, professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), has demonstrated through more than 80 scientific experiments that trees are able to communicate with their neighbors. The results made a significant impact upon publication.
Simard had been fascinated by forests since childhood. Over 25 years, she and her colleagues repeated experiments in Canadian forests to determine whether trees genuinely communicated with one another.
The experiment worked as follows: three types of trees pine, birch, and cedar were each covered with plastic bags. Radioactive carbon-14-tagged carbon dioxide gas was injected into the birch’s bag, and carbon-13-tagged gas into the pine’s. Researchers then measured the exchange of radiation between the birch and pine root systems.
Within an hour, the birch and pine had exchanged their respective carbon isotopes through their roots. The cedar, not connected to the birch-and-pine root network, showed no such exchange with the other species.
Prof. Simard confirmed that trees use sophisticated mechanisms to exchange not only carbon, but also nitrogen, phosphorus, water, defense signals, allelochemicals, and hormones.
Even at a distance, trees stay connected through an underground network
According to Prof. Simard, while trees may appear independent above ground, an entire invisible world exists below the surface one where roots spread in every direction, and where the vast reach of fungal networks appears to weave a kind of « symbiotic web. » A single tree can be connected to hundreds of others. Information and nutrients are regularly exchanged through this mycorrhizal network the symbiotic association between fungi and tree roots between trees of the same species, different species, and even different types of plants. Some trees even act as « mother trees, » functioning as hubs within the network.
A « mother tree » recognizes its own offspring and develops larger mycorrhizal networks with them. It sends significant nutrients to its saplings through this underground network and even clears root space to make room for their growth. When a « mother tree » is wounded, it sends chemical warning signals carbon-based defense compounds to its offspring, helping them build greater resilience to future stress.
A more controversial chapter: the « Backster effect »
Long before Simard’s research, one man had already claimed to detect communication in plants: Cleve Backster, an American polygraph specialist, who in 1966 attached lie-detector equipment to plants and reported that they reacted with what looked like fear and distress. In 1968, Backster published his findings in the International Journal of Parapsychology, sparking wide public interest at the time.
It’s worth noting, however, that Backster’s experiments have never been successfully replicated by independent researchers, and his conclusions were ultimately rejected by the broader scientific community unlike Simard’s peer-reviewed, widely replicated work on mycorrhizal networks, which remains one of forest ecology’s most significant discoveries.