How trees secretly talk to each other
Posted on: Sun 16 May 2021
If you cut a limb off a tree on one side of the forest, does a tree kilometres away recognise the sound of that chainsaw as something to fear? How do trees manage to communicate across such vast distances?
And: does an ancient tree on one side of Adelaide pass on important information about survival to a tree on the other side of Adelaide?
“It’s called the wood wide web.”
Marian McDuie, GIS consultant and general educator
We ask GIS consultant and general educator Marian McDuie these questions. Her research into the ancient trees in our city is at the base of Unley Museum’s exhibition Who Gives a Root? – Trees talk, which is on until the end of 2021. The exhibition hopes to make you look at our trees in a new way – and convince you why not cut down that huge tree in your city backyard.
Marian, who is also a self-proclaimed tree hugger, starts off by telling us what exactly it means… to be a tree hugger:
Story produced by Stefanie Staelens
