Page 43 - 2016-10
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TELL ME A STORY
Talking Trees
by Joe Anthony, ACG, ALB
Imagine a young earth without tall trees. Dane’s snout. It needs
Imagine a place where poplars stretch no higher outside help to gather
than your knees, and oaks that come up to your these all-important resources. In steps a helpful
ankle. Imagine fields of fully-grown maples that symbiotic organism—a strain of Amanita fungus.
sway like short stalk wheat, and evergreen firs
that blanket valleys like dense, short shrubbery. When a new tree emerges from the soil
This is the world we’d occupy, if not for a very this specialized fungus, which looks like a tiny
special type of fungus. bleached-white thread one tenth the width of
an eyelash, snuggles up to the new root. The
Recently, thanks to the podcast Radiolab and tree recognizes the fungus for what it is, a new
a series of Scientific American articles by Jennifer partner, and weakens its root in just that spot.
Frazer, I was introduced to this alternate, nascent And like a new limb this fungal string attaches
earth. Being a layman in arboreal matters I’ve itself to the root, and a mutually beneficial
lived my life believing that tree roots gather all partnership begins.
the nutrition the sun and rain can’t provide. I
thought trees were utterly self-sufficient, and You see, this mycorrhizal fungi is a miner. It
had formed on this planet as they are now: tall, secretes acids, and it borrows as it grows. It eats
through rock, dirt, decaying plant life, and even
majestic, and hardy. Not so.
Trees, I learned, are actually quite bad at small creatures and discarded animal
matter. If a grizzly eats a salmon near
absorbing minerals and carbon, two key elements an oak tree, some of that salmon
needed to grow solid, stable trunks. Carbon protein will end up in the tree, thanks
and minerals are to trees what iron and rivets to this burrowing fungi. Because of
are to the Eiffel tower. Water and sunlight? this absorption, all trees are technically
Trees gobble that up. But without minerals and opportunistic carnivores. And this isn’t
carbon your everyday ponderosa pine wouldn’t even the fungi’s best trick.
have the strength to reach higher than a Great
Trees have a banking system,
through the fungus. The tiny white
strands are restless, and will seek out
nearby fungal networks and connect to
them. Dozens upon dozens of trees can
be involved in one of these networks.
Scientists call these mycorrhizal
networks, or wood-wide-webs. Once
connected, trees of any variety will
allocate tremendous amounts of their
resources to the network, which the fungi can
dole out to other trees in need. A redwood might
share its nutrients with a sick birch. A hickory
might get too dry during a heat wave and make a
“withdraw” from the network’s store. The greater
the variety of trees in the network, the healthier
the forest becomes in general, because different
types of trees can cover for different nutritional
shortcomings.
43 Volume 3 Issue 4 - OCTOBER 2016
