The admirable adaptability of trees

This is part four 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, honoring 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. 

• Trees also have skin. It is called bark
• Trees contain much liquid inside, as we do in our bodies
• A break in the tree bark is as uncomfortable as a wound is for humans 
• Trees shed large amounts of skin cells 
• In Central Europe there are no old growth natural forests where trees can boast a great age
• Generally in Europe trees are aged around two and three hundred years 

Thank heavens, no synthetic cosmetic industry has become obsessed with keeping trees looking youthful as they are with humans.  But we learn in The Hidden Life of Trees that these earth beings do get ‘old’ but age gracefully. No Botox, no facials, no makeup.  This week we continue from chapter 11 titled Trees aging gracefully which points out that trees also shed their skin cells and that in large trees the ‘flakes,’ can be seen scattered around the tree roots.  A research that captures old age of trees, the book reveals, was conducted by Dr. Zoe Lindo of McGill University of Montreal, studying the Sitka spruce  which had done earth time for at least 500 years. One of the discoveries made were large quantities of moss on the branches. Blue green coloured algae, which capture nitrogen from the air and process it as natural fertilizer down the tree trunks, live in this moss. 

Moss which take much time to grow can be described as the treasure trove of the forest. Trees meanwhile are described as unable to grow taller when its roots and vascular system that transport water and nutrition cannot go higher due to age related fatigue.  Tree life is finally ended when the trunk snaps. Chapter 12 is titled Mighty Oak or Mighty Wimp, detailing out how the grand Oak Tree displays both weak and strong qualities. For example in the European forests if Beech trees are nearby they snatch up every root space that the Oak is not using. After 150 years of this monopoly the Beech would tower over the Oak in height, by capturing around 97% of the sun. The poor Oak is reduced to starving because it cannot produce sugar with this scanty amount of sunlight.

 Then it resorts to what could be called ‘below the belt’ tactics. It grows new shoots and leaves below at the base which although can exist awhile with minimum sustenance, cannot hold on for more than a few decades. As the author Peter Wohlleben points out, the time factor realities that govern us are opposite in the world of natural forests. A tree 100 years old is still considered young. 

The Oak meanwhile does show tenacity when put to dire tests such as Oaks who are fated to be born and live upon rocky slopes where the summer heat is scorching and winter chill freezing; both in extreme proportions. Yet the Oak persists although as anemic counterparts to their imposing brothers. Oaks on rocky inclines can grow no more than 15 feet with the tree trunks no thicker than a wrist; even after a century, the book The Hidden Life of Trees tells us. Although the Oaks in the comfy atmosphere of shaded but sunny spots of forests grow to be 100 feet tall, the Oaks in deprived atmosphere maybe nothing to look at but it displays the greatest of stamina, choosing to live despite the odds. In chapter 13 we are shown how different trees display varying characteristics of specialty. 

This chapter emphasises that there is no idyllic life anywhere on earth for trees. That it is about adaptability. Probably just like the human world. The Spruce is cited as one of the best conquers of fate, braving it whether in Siberia, Canada or Scandinavia. 

The Spruce can survive harsh cold because it stores essential oils in their needles and bark.  This, the book notes, acts like antifreeze. The majority tree populace in the Central Europe latitudes, we are told are the Beech. It shares ground space with the Yew, and although the Yew tree species seem to play second fiddle to the Beech, they are specialists in the forest understory, making the most of being second best, while their competitor absorbs the best of natural resources and grows high.  The Hornbeam—related to the Birch is said to imitate the Yew but is not so thrifty with—nevertheless surviving beneath Beech dictatorship. The Hornbeam can however compete with the Beech when there is serious lack or extreme of sunlight. 

Where the Beech give up in situations such as severe drought the Hornbeam emerges as victor.  Chapter 14 is titled Tree or not a Tree and is about the dwarf trees of the Tundra which at fully adult age totaling to a couple of hundred years stand at a mere 8 inches in height.  Peter Wohlleben points out that science does not accord the tree status to these earth beings. 

They are classified as shrubs. This is how species such as the Arctic shrubby birch, Mountain ash and small beeches are known. The enviable immortality of trees are also mentioned in this chapter where the ancient most spruce in the Dalarna province in Sweden which had grown a flat shrubby growth around its single trunk is estimated to be 9,550 years old. The individual shoots are from different centuries. 

It is revealed that before this research it was not thought possible for the spruce to live more than 500 years. We will today end at chapter 15 titled In the realm of darkness, which is about the rich and intricate world of soil. The author notes that a fistful of forest soil could pulsate with more life than the entire human population of planet earth. 

The Books were facilitated from the Library of Healing in Nuwara Eliya. 

FT LINK

Part 1 of this series can be seen at https://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/How-trees-compare-to-humans-in-life-values-%E2%80%93-Part-1/10523-783147. Part 2 is at https://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/Understanding-the-mysterious-world-of-trees/10523-783416. Part 3 is at https://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/Art-of-survival-of-a-natural-forest/10523-783745