Do trees communicate?

Ecologist Suzanne Simard has shown how trees use a network of soil fungi to communicate their needs and aid neighboring plants. Now she's warning that threats like ... to it, then we're going to care about it more. If we care about it more, then we're going to do a better job of stewarding our landscapes.”. read more

They might seem like the strong, tall and silent type, but trees actually communicate with each other. Forest ecologist Dr Suzanne Simard, from the University of British Colombia, studies a type of fungi that forms underground communication networks between trees in North American forests. read more

“Mother Trees” Use Fungal Communication Systems to Preserve Forests Suzanne Simard, forest ecologist at the University of British Columbia, and her colleagues have made the major discovery that trees and plants really do communicate and interact with each other. read more

Plants can communicate with insects as well, sending airborne messages that act as distress signals to predatory insects that kill herbivores. Maize attacked by beet armyworms releases a cloud of volatile chemicals that attracts wasps to lay eggs in the caterpillars’ bodies. read more