Reality check: Are there ‘intelligent’ trees that ‘talk’ to each other?

A group of researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada has now collected the results from a large number of different studies to find answers about the contact trees have with each other underground.

Millions of enthusiastic book readers and documentary film viewers have picked up on author Peter Wohlleben’s claim that trees live a secret life.

A life where they talk to each other, show love, and feed their children.

But is this true?

[Justine] Karst and other mycologists can confirm that there are large networks of fungal threads underground. These threads can stretch between trees and between plants.

However, Karst and her colleagues point out that several key claims…. that have been widely repeated in the media and literature in recent years – are only based on very few studies.

So far, researchers know little about how far such fungal networks between trees extend underground. They also do not know if it is really possible for trees to communicate through such networks, according to Karst and her colleagues.

The researchers also looked for studies that could confirm the claim that trees help their children by transferring nutrients to them via underground networks.

Here, they found even less evidence in the research that has been done.

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