Did you know… trees have friends.

Just as human beings, trees also age and die, when a tree is sick it receives protection from its neighbors with the help of the roots. Sometimes it is a weak connection through the layer of fungi that covers the tip of the roots and that helps them to exchange nutrients and, sometimes, it is true unions.

Yes! Trees are joined through roots. Scientists from Harz (a region in northern Germany) discovered that it is a tangled system that connects most individuals of a species and a population. The exchange of nutrients, the neighborhood help in case of need, is clearly the norm and translates into the statement that forests are super organisms, that is, a structure similar to an anthill and even society.

Massimo Emilio Maffei (biologist) He argues that trees and plants can distinguish the roots of other species and even different specimens of the same species. Trees are social beings, they share their food with specimens of the same species and help their competitors, the reasons are the same as human society: together they work better.

A tree does not make a forest, it is not capable of creating a balanced local climate, it is exposed to the wind and incidents of the weather. The trees together create an ecosystem that buffers extreme heat and cold, stores a certain amount of water, and produces very humid air. In such an environment, trees can live protected and grow old.

If all the specimens cared only for themselves, many of them would not reach adulthood. Continued deaths would cause large gaps in the canopy, so storms would enter more easily and other trees could be felled. The summer heat would creep into the forest floor and dry it out. Everyone would suffer, hence, the importance of each tree, old, young or sick.