The Wisdom of Trees

chemical called ‘triethylamine’, released as the blossom fades, is the smell of a dead body (and, incidentally, of human sperm).

swamp gum (Eucalyptus regnans) stands 101 metres or 331 feet tall—and may once have been taller before it was damaged. It is the tallest hardwood and the tallest flowering plant anywhere; and the eucalyptus, being highly fire-adapted and opportunistic, is the fastest tree to get to that height.

There is also another force at work, one which we do not yet understand properly: the ability of many trees to accumulate positive pressure in their roots and force the water column upwards.

Snares and traps, bows and the mechanisms of simple locks allow stored energy to be released suddenly: they are, in principle, the origins of the idea of batter

Every instrument is a compromise between strength (strings are always trying to pull their instrument to pieces) and resonance: too strong a build and the sound is killed; then it might as well be an electric guitar, he says, looking at me over the top of his glasses. Too weak and it will fly apart. We wonder if there is an analogy with the great cathedral builders, who could not calculate the forces needed to keep up their spires, vaults and columns but with each great monument tested the limits of materials and design in the name of faith (and the sponsor).

HUMANS ARE UNIQUE in that we do not necessarily learn knowledge to solve a particular task: we continue to learn for the sake of it, without knowing where it might lead, and that is why humans can see the almost infinite potential of their kind and of the resources around them.

Botanists have deduced that it owes its existence to a series of chance hybridizations.

Even more marvellously, these fungal microfibres link the root systems of clusters of trees so that the benefits are shared. The trees are not exactly holding hands, but they are playing footsie with one another.

the bishop’s corn crop, they also had to carry a hundre

is the almost mythical Catacol white‍