The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate
- author
- Peter Wohlleben
- Goodreads
- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28256439-the-hidden-life-of-trees
Themes
Interesting Facts
- Some forests plan reproduction in advance, such as birch trees. This regulates many things, for example, the population of animals that depend on their fruit.
- Parent trees enforce a strict upbringing on the new generation of young seedlings. One way they do this is through light deprivation: young seedlings are short and covered by the crowns of the parent trees. The young trees often only receive enough light to survive, enforcing a slow growth, and encouraging them to develop extensive branches and leaves that can absorb the little sunlight they receive. Once the mother tree perishes, the young trees can then grow up strong.
- “A tree is only as strong as the forest”: Trees are social beings, and trees try to ensure that every tree in the forest is equally successful (e.g. their photosynthesis rate is often synchronized).
- The notion of having to space out the vegetation to avoid overcrowding comes from a forester’s mentality. In practice, trees don’t practice this sort of distancing.