Columnist and neurobiology student Sara Matiş finds comfort in nature. This time: do trees really 'talk' to each other?

I like laying on my back at the base of trees and looking up at them. I like how perspective enlarges them, seemingly bringing them closer to the sky. I take deep breaths, taking in the earthy, slightly bitter smell. I imagine the tree crowns as huge lungs, breathing together with me – every inhale of mine mirrored by an oxygen out-breath of the trees. I visualize the hidden parts of these lungs, running deep into the soil, forming an even larger and more intricate system than the canopy – the roots. And below me, the trees are somehow connected.

The vast majority of trees form symbiotic relationships with fungi, which are mutually essential for their survival and growth. These fungi grow on top of and inside the roots, extending the root’s system reach, and can take up nutrients that would otherwise be inaccessible to the trees. In turn, trees take care of the photosynthesis and provide the fungi with the sugars they need. This symbiosis is called mycorrhiza, from the Greek múkēs (fungus) and rhíza (root). The neighboring trees share a common network, as fungi spread out through the soil and physically connect the roots, publicly known as the wood wide web.

This interconnected network received a lot of attention from mainstream media and led to claims (more or less backed by science) about the extent to which the trees interact through the wood wide web. The idea that trees share nutrients, preferentially to their own seedlings, or even signal danger to each other through this network sounds so captivating and can easily be exaggerated, oversimplified, misinterpreted. And that’s not surprising, we try to make sense of the world through the way we experience it, to mirror our society in nature. These claims often imply that trees form some sort of community or consciousness and this familiar sense of order and morality is very attractive to us.

So, do trees really ‘talk’ to each other? Probably not to the extent we like to imagine. But there are many stories of connection that are true without having to attribute human traits to them. The mycorrhiza symbiosis is in itself a fascinating mutual relationship in nature that has been around for over 500 million years and made life on earth as we know it possible. There is a biological energy flow between us and trees.

There is a story of connection in every breath I take when I lay down in the forest. In a wide world where connecting with virtually anyone is possible, I find it so grounding to be locally connected and breathe in the earthy, bitter smell.

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