Index – Science – At least seventy thousand bachelors live in Budapest

World-renowned writer Roald Dahl sound machine In his short story, he invented a machine through which he could hear the sounds of plants: the shriek of roses when they were picked, or the sigh of the blades of grass when they were cut. But when he fertilizes the bitter suffering of a cut-down tree with an axe, he smashes his plane and goes to help the injured tree.

Well, as far as we know, trees don’t make any sound, but they communicate intensely with each other. As mentioned in the world-famous book Peter Wohlleben (The hidden life of trees, The hidden life of trees) explain

They do not persecute their peers, but feed them when needed. (And for other species, their lives get tougher, shaded, repelled, and bombarded with chemicals.)

Long live Wood Wide Web!

They are talking. In case of danger, for example warning each other – as observed in Africa forty years ago with the umbrella acacia, the leaves of which are one of the favorite delicacies of gourmets. When a giraffe sips a good dose of it, the tree sets off an alarm, more specifically emitting ethylene gas to warn nearby companions, then fills the leaves with bad-tasting toxins. Giraffes know they have little time to graze on a tree, and they do not cunningly move to a nearby tree but to a distant tree where the alarm gas may not have arrived.

Every tree communicates, whether it is spruce, beech or oak. If a pest, such as a caterpillar, chews on the oak, the poisonous tannic acid is loaded into the bark and leaves. Willow produces salicylic acid, which also kills pests (unlike us who use willow bark broth for headaches).

However, the most intense contact occurs underground, through root systems intertwined with fungal hyphae that are twice the breadth of the canopy and organically connect to the roots of other trees. It is no coincidence that researchers wide wooden netA network of communication is called trees, in which electrical impulses also operate, as well as on the Internet.

Hordes of singles sad

The problem with urban trees is that they cannot form a true community. They are often found on a row of trees, spaced out, covered with concrete around, or standing in gardens with other species. The variety may be aesthetically appealing, but it lacks all the advantages of a breed community: no support network, no ancestral trees feeding its seedlings, and no beneficial communication. And also among the singles of urban man who live together in large crowds.

seventy thousand She is looked after in Budapest. They will need a lot of them in cities because they are beautiful, provide shade, are cool, and clean the air. But mostly, they live among us in agony.

(Cover photo: A family walks among ornamental trees that have changed into autumn on Artúr Somlay’s promenade. Photo: Csaba Jászai/MTI)