Last Word on Wood

Tree saves 150 People from death

Trees sometimes save lives. Take for example a large 300-year-old tamarind tree in the grounds of the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad, India.  In 1908 there was a devastating flood in the town when the Musi river rose 16 feet in 3 hours.  The resulting flood eventually caused around 15,000 deaths, destroyed more than 19,000 homes and made one-quarter of the entire city’s population homeless.  A famous Urdu poet, Amjad Hyderabadi, saved his life by hanging on to the branches of the large tamarind tree in the hospital grounds. Amjad lost his mother, wife and daughter who were drowned in the deluge. He was one of 150 people who managed to survive by clinging to this particular tree for two days.  It still stands to this day and its role in saving so many lives is still celebrated annually.

Some trees are just so historic and productive. 

The oldest known olive tree in the world is found in Crete, Greece. This ancient Olive Tree of Vouves (Elia Vouvon) still produces olives. There are only seven olive trees in the Mediterranean which are thought to be over 2,000 years old. Although the exact age of the Olive Tree of Vouves cannot be verified, scientists from the University of Crete have estimated it to be 4,000 years old! Branches from this tree were used to weave victors' wreaths for the winners of the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  The use of an olive branch to symbolize peace is even earlier than ancient Greek mythology as it had already appeared centuries earlier in Ancient Egypt as a symbol of peace. It also has its place in the Old Testament of the Bible.  It was an olive branch (or leaf, depending on the translation) which was brought back to Noah by a dove to demonstrate that the flood was over (Book of Genesis, 8:11).  So, it has been a positive symbol of peace in many cultures for many millennia.

The oldest Individual Trees of All

Two of the oldest trees in the world are the Great Basin bristlecone pine (5,062 years old) and Methuselah (4,845 years old), both of which are from the same species and live in California’s White Mountains.  Sad note: there was an even older specimen however in 1964, a certain Donal Rusk Currey killed it. To this day, there has still never been an older tree discovered. Basically, Currey got his tree corer so stuck in the tree that it wouldn’t come out.  An unwitting park ranger helped him by cutting the tree down, to free the instrument, and later Currey began to count the tree rings. Eventually, he realised to his horror that the tree he had just felled was greater than 5,000 years old – the oldest living tree ever recorded.  It is no wonder that the location of these old trees in California is kept secret to protect them!  There is something horrific about killing a majestic living organism that existed before the pyramids were even built.

Trees also warn their neighbours

When a giraffe eats an acacia tree the leaves of the tree being eaten emit ethylene gas to warn other trees. This gas triggers them to pump tannins into their own leaves.  This toxin can kill large herbivores and serves to protect the nearby acacia trees. 

Trees keep injured neighbour alive!

In New Zealand, there is a kauri tree stump (Agathis australis) that should be dead. However, it is very much alive due to the root systems of surrounding trees.  These have kept the stump on life support by sharing water and nutrients.

Scientists have long suspected such sharing networks exist but proving such resource transfers take place has been difficult.   Researchers found the stump in a rainforest in the Waitakere Ranges on New Zealand’s North Island. Even though the stump was missing branches and leaves it was very much alive. They found that the surrounding kauri trees were supplying the stump with a lifeline of sap and water through their roots connecting with the stump roots.  Many trees – nearly 150 species-form roots with other trees of the same species to exchange water and nutrients. Foresters have reported living stumps as far back as the 1800s, but this is one of the first studies of how they survive.

The finding adds to a growing understanding that trees and other organisms can work together for the benefit of a forest.  Given that trees do it, surely, we humans need to learn from them!
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2211209-tree-stumps-that-should-be-dead-can-be-kept-alive-by-nearby-trees/#ixzz6Q2T2LQB5

Making clones to live longer!

When we talk about age and allow clones to be included, then all the above-mentioned trees are mere youngsters. Pando is a clonal colony of an individual male quaking aspen determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers and assumed to have one massive underground root system. It is found in Fishlake National Forest in south-central Utah, United States. The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms we know.

Sadly, Pando is currently thought to be dying. Though the exact reasons are not known, it is thought to be a combination of factors.  It has stopped growing for the last 30-40 years and a study in October 2018 concluded that human interference was named as the primary cause of its demise.  I don’t know why this seems so horrific but it does.  The world's most massive and oldest organism is being killed and we seem to be responsible.

Conclusion 

I suspect like me you have a growing respect for trees and a growing suspicion we should learn from them and certainly stop destroying these precious lungs of our planet.  Their contribution to neighbourhoods around them and their very presence on this planet over the millennium has always served to enrich and beautify.  Would that we could aspire to follow their example.  Our connection to this natural world is a reality that we must respect and preserve not abuse.

"..ye walk on My earth complacent and self-satisfied, heedless that My earth is weary of you.."

The Hidden Words, Bahá’u’lláh