What if the trees communicate?

If trees communicate, wouldn't it be interesting to know how they do it? Trees are noticed by means of odoriferous substances, even for humans our smell speaks to the conscious and their conscious of people.From a scientific point of view, pheromones in sweat can be decisive in deciding who we want to be with. So we have a secret language, something that trees can also boast.

As a form of defense to ward off large herbivores, acacias send toxic substances to their leaves in a matter of minutes. The attacked acacia emits a warning gas (ethylene) which signals to its neighbors that a danger is approaching. Trees do not trust they do not exclusively trust the air, so the signals are also sent through the roots.

In this way, all the trees that receive the warning also send toxic substances to prepare. These processes also take place in our forests, they all detect the presence of someone loitering near them. When a tree is attacked, it, like humans, sends electrical signals through its body, but this impulse does not propagate in the same way as in us, but only one centimeter per minute. It takes an hour for the toxic substances to settle on the leaves of the trees.

Despite this slow pace, the different parts of the tree do not work in isolation. For example, if the roots are in difficulty, the information is spread throughout the tree and can cause odorous substances to be released through the leaves. In the forests there are also solitary trees, this does not mean that the warning signals do not arrive, fortunately in most cases fungi are interspersed. These act like the fiberglass of internet conduits.

A single mushroom can spread several square kilometers and create a network that spans the entire forest. Through its conduits it passes information from one tree to another, about insects, droughts and other dangers. Science speaks of a "Wood-Wide-Network", which runs through our forests.

Our crop plants have lost the ability to communicate either above or below ground. Being practically deaf and mute, they become easy prey for insects. This is one of the reasons why modern agriculture uses so many insecticides.