Do trees talk to each other?
Yes they do and their communication is mediated by fungi beneath the surface of the ground.
This communication enables trees and other plants to share resources, thereby helping the whole forest to flourish.
Here’s a quick overview of the key principles from Dr. Suzanne Simard.
She’s Professor of Forest Ecology in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia.… Read more
If you don’t know Jeremy Narby, you should.
He’s a “diplomat between two systems of knowledge.”
Narby as born in Montreal in 1959 and grew up in Canada and Switzerland.
He studied history at the University of Canterbury and received a doctorate in anthropology from Stanford University.
Narby spent several years living with the Ashaninca in the Peruvian Amazon cataloging their understanding and use of the plants in their forest … Read more
It took decades for corporate-owned science to discover that things like tobacco and processed meats are deadly.
But GMOs were given a clean bill of health with next-to-no testing and certainly no multi-year tests on humans.
Here’s what Big Pharma says about its own products:
“Biological products have definite risks as they are only partially understood at the time of their approval.”
What are GMOs … Read more
Jim Duke – “Better Living Through Phytochemistry” – with Potentilla recta, Cinquefoil – The Green Farmacy Garden’s legal representative of Cannabis sativa as displayed in the Glaucoma plot of his garden.
If this is your first exposure to Dr. Duke, we strongly recommend you take some time to dig deeper into his work and career.
More more information:
The Internet is full of wonders.
Here’s another one: A database of all the world’s plants.
It’s called, what else? The Plant List.
The Plant List a working list of all known plant species. It’s goal is to be comprehensive for species of Vascular plant (flowering plants, conifers, ferns and their allies) and of Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts).
It’s a collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical … Read more
A first draft of the “tree of life” for the roughly 2.3 million named species of animals, plants, fungi and microbes — from platypuses to puffballs — has been released.
A collaborative effort among eleven institutions, the tree depicts the relationships among living things as they diverged from one another over time, tracing back to the beginning of life on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago.
Tens of thousands … Read more
A massive study of trees and human health in Toronto yields results that confirm what many sensible people feel.
Trees are good for you.
How good?
The statistics show that having ten or more trees on your block gives the health benefits of being seven years younger.
Yeah. Wow!
Original article:
Neighborhood greenspace and health in a large urban center
Popular article from Toronto Star:
Daniel Atha put on his waders and ventured slowly into the Pool, near West 103rd Street, one of several bodies of water in Central Park. He was after a broad-leaved yellow pond lily and an iris of indeterminate species.
He carefully collected the two specimens, along with a baseball bearing Derek Jeter’s signature. After he studied the iris for a moment, his face brightened. He thought the flower might not … Read more
There are roughly 3 trillion trees on Earth—more than seven times the number previously estimated—according to a tally by an international team of scientists. The study also finds that human activity is detrimental to tree abundance worldwide. Around 15 billion trees are cut down each year, the researchers estimate; since the onset of agriculture about 12,000 years ago, the number of trees worldwide has dropped by 46%.
– Ken … Read more
Michelle Posey of Pelican Produce. Upper Ninth Ward
By Elsa Hahne
Sometimes the vacant lot next door, overgrown with weeds, turns into a beautiful garden. Not by itself, of course, but since nobody’s moved in and no houses are being built there, it can seem like magic.
That’s true for hundreds of neighbors in the Lower and Upper Ninth Ward as well as for residents throughout the city. And in … Read more
