Tree Communication

Forest ecologist Dr. Suzanne Simard has been studying the intelligence and communication of trees for almost 40 years. In 1997, she made the fascinating discovery that, for the past 500 million years, trees have been speaking to each other through a massive underground network of fungi, which she calls the “Wood Wide Web.” At the heart of the “Wood Wide Web” are the oldest trees within the forest, known as “Mother Trees,” who nurture the younger trees and saplings by sharing their nutrients, water, and providing warnings about potential insect attacks. Through this fungal network, one elder tree can connect to and communicate with hundreds of other trees, either of the same or different species, making it a true guiding force within the forest.

Scientists have also discovered that trees communicate above ground through the release of chemicals called pheromones and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). For instance, when a tree is being attacked by insects, it can warn its neighbors by releasing VOCs into the air. Then, nearby trees will smell these signals and protect themselves against the same insects by making their own leaves taste bad or even toxic.

In the Costa Bocche forest, located within the Dolomites Mountain range in northeastern Italy, the research team connected equipment to individual spruce trees to monitor bio-electrical communications before, during, and after the eclipse. “What we found was quite incredible and, in a way, unexpected. We had an eclipse event passing through the site while we were recording and monitoring the trees and we observed something that we see in animals but never seen before in plants, a synchronization behavior. When we looked at the data more closely, the older trees were the ones that started the signal first, or the change in behavior, 14 hours before the eclipse even arrived. And they were the ones that sent the message to all the others, especially the younger ones, that potentially never experienced an event of this kind. And, allowed everyone to synchronize as one.”

Did you know that trees also communicate with insects? United Kingdom environmentalist and filmmaker Lawrence D'Silva offers insights into how trees help guide us bees to find flowers with the highest content of pollen and nectar. “Lot’s of bees flock to this particular tree, the horse chestnut, because it’s a huge flowering tree, one of the largest flowering trees in Europe. And, if you have a look in there quite closely at the flower, you’ll see that some flowers are pink and some are yellow. And what’s happening here is the tree is signaling to the bee which flowers to go for. So, if the pollen and nectar and stuff has already been taken, then the flower will turn to red, or that kind of pinky color. But then, for some of the other flowers, inside the center of them, they’re still yellow. And the yellow ones still contain enough pollen, and haven’t been pollinated, so the bees will go to those ones.”