Shot of the Day # 42 – Poplar Portrait

I’m intrigued by recent writings that praise trees’ abilities and accomplishments as a cooperative community…communicating chemical information through the air and nourishment through a complex underground root and fungal network. These abilities are said to improve the survival of all the trees in the forest.

I love trees (for the most part…see previous post) and I’m glad science is discovering more about what they do. But it’s hard for me to deny that trees also compete for important resources.

The zoologist in me is more familiar with competition. For animals, there is territory to be claimed, food to be hunted and mates to be won over. I guess it’s a guy thing. I can’t help but bring that perspective to the forest.

Trees have it easy in some regards. Their territory is already established. The sun and chlorophyl in the leaves provide the food for growth, so they don’t have to hunt, graze or scavenge. They don’t have to fight for or woo a mate. The wind and insects set reproduction in motion. The success of the next generation depends on the success of the seeds that are produced.

There’s a reason trees spew out thousands of seeds. Life is tough out there and the odds of survival are long. The seeds of the next generation may be the end-all of your purpose in life but to everyone else, seeds are food.
  

Territorial Trees (7 March 2022)

From the backyard hot tub, one can observe this poplar tableau…which appears to be something less than selfless altruism. The image above frames a group of poplars frozen in time. To the far right is a clearing…open space. The photograph shows bigger, more mature trees on the left. They are tall and straight. They also appear to be pushing the younger trees toward the right.

The older trees were there first and the younger trees on the right are just getting what they can. After all, in the plant world, light makes right. Just guessing here, but since the younger trees on the right face the clearing, they can put out leafy branches up and down their length. The old fogies on the left have to depend on the branches near the top.

With apologies to the published experts, if growing at an angle has long-term, evolutionary advantages, all the trees would do it. I suspect that the younger trees are at greater risk of falling over. More of their mass is off center and gravity has a way of reminding us of that during bad weather. The rest of the trees ‘know’ that straighter is better (ask any Florida Republican).

Plants lust for the light. They do share water and nutrients underground. That interconnectedness helps keep the community habitat stable, especially on hillsides. But above ground, when it comes to the life-giving light, it’s every tree for himself. If a sapling manages to grow to maturity in the forest, it has earned it.