A Few Things About Trees

What Do Trees Say To Us?

 They say, “If your mind were only a slightly greener thing we would drown you in portentous truths, truths not ever spoken in words.”

Richard Powers, The Overstory

 Of course, no tree knows the big word “portentous,” or, for that matter, any other word. Trees have no speech, no words, so what do trees say to us? Nothing.

 

Quakers

Why do the leaves of a quaking aspen quake? Are they afraid? No. They have found a unique way of doubling their photosynthesis: they photosynthesize on both sides of the leaf since both are exposed to sunlight through quaking. Most trees use the underside of their leaves for breathing.

Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees

 So if the aspens use the breathing underside of their leaves for photosynthesis, how do they manage to breathe? I don’t know. Maybe through pneumatophores ("knees"), like a cypress. 

[excerpted from the book by U.R. Bowie, Here We Be. Where Be We?]

                                                      Cypress knees (pneumatophores)