Connections

Dear Diary,

Some trees have lost all their leaves already. I suspect the rain storm stripped them. More heavy rain is suspected this week so this will be a common sight fairly soon.

I made this photograph because I recently saw a video where a botanist talked about the web of connections that exist between trees in a forest. It was absolutely fascinating and I can't get it out of my mind. It has made my time around the pond and my walks in my own woodlands even more special. We humans are not the only species on the planet connected by a web!

"Suzanne Simard, forest ecologist at the University of British Columbia, and her colleagues have made the major discovery that trees and plants really do communicate and interact with each other. She discovered an underground web of fungi connecting the trees and plants of an ecosystem. This symbiosis enables the purposeful sharing of resources, consequently helping the whole system of trees and plants to flourish."

This has totally altered my appreciation for the natural world. Humans could learn a lesson from the forests, I think...we are all connected!

“The big trees were subsidizing the young ones through the fungal networks. Without this helping hand, most of the seedlings wouldn’t make it.”

Suzanne Simard

You can read the article here.