Fully Fascinating Forestry

[John_KAYS]

I found this really fascinating!
https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_s....com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tedspread

I especially found the idea that the mother trees pass on info to their young to help fight diseases and such to be incredible. Also that different species help each other out....I know about the basics of mycorrhiza and the symbiotic relationship it has with the tree roots, but this takes it further. Cool stuff.

 

[John_KAYS]

@KTSmith Do you know Suzanne Simard? I feel like this is what you do too and therefor you are Awesome. I wish I knew that much about trees and their existence! Do you have any recommendations on books and articles that discuss the science of trees and what is below them?

 

[KTSmith]

Thanks John, let me have a look at the video before I go any further. It might take the rest of the afternoon to get to it.

 

[John_KAYS]

Thanks John, let me have a look at the video before I go any further. It might take the rest of the afternoon to get to it.

No problem, no urgency. Thanks!

 

[KTSmith]

Thanks John for posting that link. Yes, Prof. Simard's talk should be required viewing, certainly for practicing foresters and it would help arborists too.
A number of us got into the reciprocal translocation theme at about the same time. I used a more controlled system and a purely epiphytic ergot fungus on grasses, a project I started in 1979 and published in 1984. Available here. My interest was more on the chemicals that the fungus made. Simard's interest then and now is in the structure of those networks. Great work on her part...I'd probably be a tad less anthropomorphic about it....but then, I'm not at the TED Summit!

 

[frashdog]

My kids and I watched that a few days ago!
Cool!

 

[DSMc]

..... Great work on her part...I'd probably be a tad less anthropomorphic about it....

I agree. This is a problem with trying to communicate the complex interactions new research of this nature is exposing. I feel we are at a place where new words and terminology need to be developed in order to accurately communicate exactly what is happening.

 

[John_KAYS]

Thanks John for posting that link. Yes, Prof. Simard's talk should be required viewing, certainly for practicing foresters and it would help arborists too.
A number of us got into the reciprocal translocation theme at about the same time. I used a more controlled system and a purely epiphytic ergot fungus on grasses, a project I started in 1979 and published in 1984. Available here. My interest was more on the chemicals that the fungus made. Simard's interest then and now is in the structure of those networks. Great work on her part...I'd probably be a tad less anthropomorphic about it....but then, I'm not at the TED Summit!

Thanks I am looking forward to reading your publication.
And I agree a tad less anthropomorphizing would have been just fine with me.

 

[John_KAYS]

Thanks John for posting that link. Yes, Prof. Simard's talk should be required viewing, certainly for practicing foresters and it would help arborists too.
A number of us got into the reciprocal translocation theme at about the same time. I used a more controlled system and a purely epiphytic ergot fungus on grasses, a project I started in 1979 and published in 1984. Available here. My interest was more on the chemicals that the fungus made. Simard's interest then and now is in the structure of those networks. Great work on her part...I'd probably be a tad less anthropomorphic about it....but then, I'm not at the TED Summit!

Okay wow. I feel stupid. I am pretty sure more than 50% of those words are not in my vocabulary. But it is exactly the kind of reciprocal relationships I was interested in. You are too smart. That was a long time ago too. 1984...started in 1979. I was born in 1984... You were doing this sort of experiments before I was old enough to even wear a diaper.
Anyway, the network under our feet is pretty incredible. We have been seeing so much verticillium wilt in Norway Maples recently, and were thinking the soil born pathogens seem to have it easy with this superhighway of connective-ness. Or...is that not the case. As the "mother" tree sends signals to help fight the diseases, what is preventing the disease itself from passing onto the kin? Or..am I just so lost?

 

[mrtree]

This is pretty basic stuff. Simard, Boody, Rayner, Keizer, Lonsdale, Ryvarden etc. are all basics that should be read. Add in
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate―Discoveries from A Secret World. This is about to be published in english