[Garden Memories: XXV]
When a tree is injured, be it due to fire, wind, pruning, or otherwise, it releases Salicylic Acid, which is a hormone that triggers the tree’s Systemic Acquired Response. Basically the injured branch tells the rest of the tree, “Lock the doors; beware of intruders.”
The potential intruders are a broad spectrum of microorganisms, and the tree has specially trained “guards” to help: Antimicrobial Pathogenesis Related Proteins are one of them and can attack the cellular walls of bacteria and fungi.
If that’s not cool enough, Salicylic Avid can become volatile, releasing into the air and communicating the threat to surrounding trees. The trees literally talk to each other.
We had a huge mulberry tree on my childhood property. It was a biannual chore to prune off most of its mass of branches. Without fail, it would grow back bigger (and healthier!). In light of the way trees communicate, I wonder if the other trees on the property considered the mulberry tree the boy who cried wolf—every year screaming to others to beware, and yet there was rarely a threat.
Communication is going on all around us at all times. Very little of it is verbal or linguistic in nature.
He who has ears, let him hear.
