Suzanne Simard

Suzanne Simard came to realize that there was much more to a forest ecosystem than anyone had ever known. Or even considered. She learned this when she realized that trees were relaying messages back and forth to each other through “a cryptic underground fungal network.”

Through that underground fungal network there was “a clandestine path of conversations.” They conversed about dangers each tree had seen and how they might counter it. This sounds like science fiction, but it is science. She found the network was pervasive through the entire forest floor and connected all trees in a constellation of tree hubs and fungal links. She was able to discern,

“a crude map revealed, stunningly, that the biggest oldest timbers are the sources of fungal connections to regenerating seedlings…that connect to all neighbors, young and old, serving as lynchpins for a jungle of threads and synapses and nodes…the journey that revealed the most shocking aspect of that pattern—that it has similarities with our own brains. In it, the old and young are perceiving, communicating, and responding to one another by emitting chemical signals. Chemicals identical to our own neurotransmitters. Signals created by ions cascading across fungal membranes.

The older trees are able to discern which seedlings are their own kin.

The old trees nurture the young ones and provide them food and water just as we do with our own children. It is enough to make one pause, take a deep breath, and contemplate the special nature of the forest and how this is critical for evolution. The fungal network appears to wire the trees for fitness. And more. These old trees are mothering their children.

The mother trees.”

 

This is a remarkable new way of looking at a forest.  And, of course, these insights are relevant to other systems as well. How much more can we learn about these other ecosystems? It is a remarkable way about thinking about the world. It ushers in an entirely new attitude to nature.