Art of survival of a natural forest

Mystery of the natural world

This is part three from our series from the book ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben originally published in German as ‘Das geheime Leben der Baume’ in 2015 by Ludwig Verlag, a division of Verlagsgruppe, Random House GmbH, Munchen, Germany. The Hidden Life of Trees was published in the English language in hardback by Greystone Books Ltd. in 2016 in Vancour, Canada. The paperback edition of the book was first published in the United Kingdom by William Collins in 2017.

This series is being created by the Harmony Page of Weekend FT, honouring the national month/s dedicated to reading in Sri Lanka and is to be turned into a training curricula for educational institutions and related institutions. 

By Surya Vishwa

The art of survival of a natural forest is not so different from our human world. Lean on me! This is what some trees seem to tell each other in natural forests devoid of human interference. Trees like to keep things simple. They don’t bother to grow large sturdy trunks if they can just cuddle up with their neighbours. Nature is as strict with trees who don’t toe the line, just as karma is with humans who err. Tree karma manifests as splits in wood, in its bark and in the life sustaining layer under the bark, the extremely sensitive layer referred to as cambium. 

Like in the human world, trees also realise that being alive is a battle for resources. Amidst the kindness and sharing, there are mini wars fought every day in a natural forests; for water, ground space and sunlight. The powerful fungi can be described as the mediators in forest wars; conciliating and acting as the security forces of the forest; exacting certain costs at most times for their services. For a fee (the exchange of the rich sugary food produced by trees) fungi casts out heavy metals (more harmful to the fungi than the trees) and fight fellow tree intruding fungi and bacteria. 

The mighty oak of Europe can be said to have bipolar disorder; they display two distinct personalities; very weak and very strong. There is more life pulsating beneath our feet totalling to multiple planet populations. In a fistful of natural forest soil there thrives more lifeforms than the human populace of this planet. 

Spaces that we call natural forests

If we thought that this planet begins and end with us, the book The Hidden Life of Trees make us rethink this pompous falsity. If the next tsunami or earthquake or landslide roars in on us and ends our breath, it would not matter one iota to the natural forests of this earth. They would grow, expand and there would be a burst of tree population across all earth space, where earlier man stood. This whole planet would be a natural forest. But for now we monopolise. Spaces that we call natural forests are a rare phenomenon across the world today. 

Last week we stopped at chapter 7 and 8 of The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben where we looked at the prim world of tree etiquette and education with chapter 8 elaborating more of the norms that trees inculcate into their consciousness. It is pointed out that trees ‘learn’ to be tough according to terrain their lot is cast upon. For example, trees that have to wrestle through life on stony or arid slopes adjust to their fate as opposed to their spoilt cousins who have it all good, greedily swallowing buckets of earth water without a care. The author Peter Wohlleben takes the Spruce as an example, looking at the tenacity of this specie when devoid of water. 

In chapter 9 titled United we Stand, Divided we Fall, the worldview of the forest as an interconnected life force is looked at, capturing its spirit and essence. The intricate but mass control that fungi wields in the forest is looked at highlighting the partiality of the fungi towards a stable world and thereby acting as the agents of underground peace. Monopoly of one forest specie over others is prevented by fungi as this would cause the forest ‘system’ to collapse. The fungi’s services come at a rather exorbitant cost; the fungi are known to demand upto a third of a tree’s total food production in exchange for their tasks. 

The title United we stand, divided we fall, indicates the inter-dependency of the forest species (as in the human world) and the natural disposition of all its beings to ‘pull together’ despite the varying ‘power struggles’ in the game of existence. The animal and insect world are part and parcel of this interconnectedness. The fungi come as last resort saviours to nitrogen lacking trees, releasing a deadly toxin into the soil which is the death sentence to organisms such as springtails. When they choke on these toxins and die they bestow the soil and trees with the nitrogen within their bodies. The other creatures of the wild that call the forest their home also are part of this survival code; for example when bark beetle infest spruce and it look as if the end is imminent for this poor tree soul, then flies in salvation; in the form of a woodpecker. It can match the fast breeding bark beetle with its appetite and beaks out the fat white larvae. If not, the tree will soon be taken over by the bark beetle population, killing it. 

The mysteries of moving water

The book notes that the woodpecker is not exactly thinking tree philanthropy or service but rather of its own tummy! This is why it is not so much concerned about whether or not the tree is made dizzy by its bark being thrown around in the woodpecker’s enthusiastic forage process. In chapter 10 under the title The Mysteries of Moving Water the central focus is how water is transported from the soil to the individual leaves of trees. The author goes beyond the accepted answers that revolve around two aspects; capillary action and transpiration. Peter Wohlleben literally breaks down capillary action into coffee froth. 

Capillary action is what makes our coffee rise a bit high than the edge of our cup, he notes, adding that the logic that narrower the vessel, the higher the liquid can rise against gravity, serves in the case of trees. Water transmission also occur through transpiration (think perspiration), when leaves transpire by exhaling water vapour. This occurs during warm days when mature trees breathe out gallons of water molecules. These molecules are threaded through the space caused within the leaves by the transpiration endeavour and thereby journey upwards within the tree. Osmosis also is described as another water transporting alterative used by trees through its sugar cells, taking the water right up to its crown. 

Water pressure, it is pointed out is highest in trees before the leaves open up in the spring. At this time of the year the water gushes up the trunk in such a force that a stethoscope held against the tree will enable a human to hear it, the author of The Hidden Life of Trees notes. 

We will run part 4 of this series next week.