Hidden beneath the surface and entangled in the roots of Earth’s astonishing and diverse plant life, there exists a biological superhighway linking together the members of the plant kingdom in what researchers call the “wood wide web”. This organic network operates much like our internet, allowing plants to communicate, bestow nutrition, or even harm one another.

The network is comprised of thin threads of fungus known as mycelium that grow outwards underground up to a few meters from its partnering plant, meaning that all of the plant life within a region is likely tapped into the network and connected to one another. The partnership of the roots of plants and the fungi is known as mycorrhiza and is beneficial for both parties involved; plants provide carbohydrates to the fungi and in exchange, the fungi aids in gathering water and providing nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen to its partnering plant.

This fungal network has been found to allow plants to aid one another in growth and flourishing. ... show that trees such as the Douglas fir and Paper birch were capable of transferring carbon to smaller trees that may not be receiving enough sunlight, allowing seedlings to grow in the shade of other trees. Simard believes that many of the world’s seedlings would not be able to survive if it weren’t for the lifeline this network provides.

A study conducted by Ren Sen Zeng of the South China Agricultural University found that this interconnectivity also allows for plants to warn one another of potential harm. ...
A similar study was done by University of Aberdeen graduate David Johnson and a team of colleagues that showed Broad Beans also utilized the fungal network to eavesdrop on one another for impending danger. ...


http://timewheel.net/Tome-Plants-Communicate-Using-An-Internet-Of-Fungus

I'm not sure if "communicating" in this case is a bit of anthropomorphizing or not...but, yeah. Cool. :)

data transfer, info transfer. It's all language in some form. In its raw form, reality is ultimately composed of information, expressed in various codes which are languages.

...I know that's how I do it....cause my wife calls me a "plant". Sometimes though, there is a short in the electro-fungal synapse...then, I have to resort to the second-choice; conventional logic....which seems to yield sub-par conclusions.

Thanks Shummy.

Can't wait to look at this a little later, hopefully tonight.

I didn't know about any of this.

Thank you, Shummy!!!

:)

Fascinating...especially given the differences between fungi and plants.

Fascinating to realize that plants have altruistic tendencies.

>capable of transferring carbon to smaller trees that may not be receiving enough sunlight, allowing seedlings to grow in the shade of other trees. Simard believes that many of the world’s seedlings would not be able to survive if it weren’t for the lifeline this network provides.


Which of course demonstrates that the Mormon church is a much lower life form than fungus.

Shummy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fascinating to realize that plants have altruistic
> tendencies.
>
> >... capable of transferring carbon to smaller trees that may not be receiving enough sunlight, allowing seedlings to grow in the shade of other trees. Simard believes that many of the world’s seedlings would not be able to survive if it weren’t for the lifeline this network provides.

> Which of course demonstrates that the "MC" is a much lower life form than fungus.

I just read that line about carbon... and wondered who or what "Simard" is.

Can you explain the 'demonstration'. It is OBVIOUSLY a low form of life. I just don't see the symbiotic relationship between Man-God & TMC, or the unconditional support, coming and going, in any relationship in LDSink... or it's altruistic relationship to mankind.

Metaphorically speaking - so do mormons.

"Two studies published in 1983 demonstrated that willow trees, poplars and sugar maples can warn each other about insect attacks: Intact, undamaged trees near ones that are infested with hungry bugs begin pumping out bug-repelling chemicals to ward off attack. They somehow know what their neighbors are experiencing, and react to it. The mind-bending implication was that brainless trees could send, receive and interpret messages."

http://www.wired.com/2013/12/secret-language-of-plants/

David Suzuki did a show on this concept, and it had all kinds of ways that plants use various means to 'talk' to one another. They may not do it like we or animals or even bugs do, but why wouldn't they evolve to do so for their benefit? They've had even longer than we have to develop these processes.

It's cool stuff. Me likes it. :) Thanks Shummy.

I learned this too while a member of PSMS - the Puget Sound Mycological Society.

Mycorrhizal Fungi: The World’s Biggest Drinking Straws And Largest Unseen Communication System.

However, I believe "The network, (is) comprised of thin threads of fungus known as mycelium that grow outwards underground up to a few meters from its partnering plant..." can be a lot larger than a few meters.

On the topic, there is always the subject of medicinal mushrooms, mushrooms for health and mushroom cultivation in Paul Stammets' 'Fungi Perfecti' at http://fungi.com (a wealth of information).

I have cultivated the reishi mushroom, a super intelligence with great benefits for humanity.

Someone did a study recently showing that a large tree was able to detect its own seedlings and direct its roots to avoid them, giving its kids a better chance to compete.

African Violets grow better if they have a buddy beside them, even in another pot. They will still grow alone, but they grow and bloom much more robustly if you give them a companion.

If your apple tree dies, it’s usually because someone cut down its mate somewhere close by. Although that’s probably a pollen thing, with bees helping in the process. But apparently they need a mate, or they die.


And finally,

Not so much science,
And a little more woo.
But you don’t do the mushroom,
The mushroom does you.

But that’s just a rumor I’ve heard, I have no personal experience with such things. I swear on the Mormon Bible. :)

Wow you're a really fun-guy.

It took until I got up to pour a coffee for me to finally get that. Good one. I saw what you did there, eventually! LOL!

You obviously needed to mushruminate a bit.

Fascinating yes but we know the ecosystem works in tandem.
Nothing extraordinary or intangible about it....
But great to acquire knowledge about it....

So we're all fun guys, eh?

Therefore, Tbms are a speshul species of mutant mushrooms kept in the dark and nourished with bullshit.

"Hidden beneath the surface and entangled in the roots of Earth’s astonishing and diverse plant life, there exists a biological superhighway linking together the members of the plant kingdom in what researchers call the “wood wide web”. This organic network operates much like our internet, allowing plants to communicate, bestow nutrition, or even harm one another."

COMMENT: It is reasonable to think that within a forest the trees and plant life are connected through their mutual connection with the earth. However, if within this connection there is a "superhighway" that is structured in a way to pass "information" in the form of carbon based molecules, one needs to identify the nature of these molecular connections; i.e. how the information is reflected and passed on within the underlying molecular structure. But, even still; so far, we are talking about molecular biology, and strictly causal molecular processes. In that sense, there may be "communication" in a weak sense of "interaction," but most certainly not a communication akin to the internet, where minds and language are involved, along with the symbolic representation that is associated with communication.

____________________________________

"The network is comprised of thin threads of fungus known as mycelium that grow outwards underground up to a few meters from its partnering plant, meaning that all of the plant life within a region is likely tapped into the network and connected to one another. The partnership of the roots of plants and the fungi is known as mycorrhiza and is beneficial for both parties involved; plants provide carbohydrates to the fungi and in exchange, the fungi aids in gathering water and providing nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen to its partnering plant."

COMMENT: But this is not "Communication." This is interaction. The fact that both "parties" receive a benefit is not sufficient to label the interaction communication. What you have is participation in a mutually beneficial ecosystem. That does not imply communication at all.

_____________________________________________

"This fungal network has been found to allow plants to aid one another in growth and flourishing. ... show that trees such as the Douglas fir and Paper birch were capable of transferring carbon to smaller trees that may not be receiving enough sunlight, allowing seedlings to grow in the shade of other trees. Simard believes that many of the world’s seedlings would not be able to survive if it weren’t for the lifeline this network provides."

COMMENT: But, again, this is nothing more than an impressive ecosystem, composed of interacting bioparts. The Douglas fir is not sitting there thinking, "I sense that a little tree across the forest is not receiving enough sunlight, I better send him a "file" accross the net that contains a bit of my carbon."

__________________________________________

"A study conducted by Ren Sen Zeng of the South China Agricultural University found that this interconnectivity also allows for plants to warn one another of potential harm. ...
A similar study was done by University of Aberdeen graduate David Johnson and a team of colleagues that showed Broad Beans also utilized the fungal network to eavesdrop on one another for impending danger. ..."

COMMENT: "Warn?" "Eavesdrop?" Now we have reached the absurd. Unless plants are conscious agents, with symbolic language, and have a complex neural network supporting rather sophisticated cognition, this is ludicrous. I am reminded of the Apple Tree in the Wizard of Oz, who objected when Dorothy helped herself to its fruit. Except, now we can add the likelihood that the tree sent signals through the wood wide web to muster an army of biochemical support. I am sure another such tree a few miles down the yellow brick road is also really pissed off.

Good to see you back Bemis. Your last comment was gold. Sorry for being a dick a few months ago.

Henry, regarding your last comment, consider these quotes:


“Farmer and Ryan worked with local sagebrush, which produce copious amounts of methyl jasmonate, an airborne organic chemical that Ryan thought plants were using to ward off insect herbivores. In their experiment, when damaged sagebrush leaves were put into airtight jars with potted tomato plants, the tomatoes began producing proteinase inhibitors — compounds that harm insects by disrupting their digestion.”

“He repeated Farmer’s experiment in the wild. When he clipped sagebrush plants, imitating the injuries caused by the sharp teeth of insects and inducing the plants to produce methyl jasmonate and other airborne chemicals, the wild tobacco nearby started pumping out the defensive enzyme polyphenol oxidase. This seemed to have real consequences. At the end of the season, these tobacco plants had much less leaf damage than others from grasshoppers and cutworms.”


The research seems to indicate that plants are using chemicals released from damaged leaves to *warn* nearby plants of insect invasions, allowing them to ramp up their own chemical responses to ward off insect attack.

Whether the 'intention' from the initial attacked plants was to *warn* the other unaffected plants, or whether the secondary plant is getting *warned* through chemically *eavesdropping* on the released chemicals from the initial plants, it would seem to qualify as a form of rudimentary communication. The terms, to me, just imply a process. I don't think they are meant as a declaration of human equivalent consciousness. How are the observations from this research absurd?

(The above quotes came from:)

http://www.wired.com/2013/12/secret-language-of-plants/

It is absurd because every organism responds to chemical stimuli.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2015 03:09AM by ladell.

The imparting or exchanging of information is communication. These plants are imparting chemical information to each other. Nobody said they were trying to build a rocket to the moon. But to me it is communication. Maybe it's just a semantics thing.

I get what you are saying. Every cell in your body is doing so much more.

Further to your comment, and referring to my example: the 'language' is a chemical one, and the 'cognition' is the sensing of these chemicals. Again, I don't find the possibility of this sort of 'communication' mechanism ludicrous or absurd.

COMMENT: If the author is using anthropocentric language metaphorically, that is one thing; and quite common. However, here, and in the literature generally, the line between "intentionality" which encompasses meaning, value, motivations, etc. and mere physical systems, is dangerously and misleadingly blurred. The problem is not that biochemical networks do not exist, or that they do not encompass the transfer of "information" (used in the technical, mathematical sense) or processes; they do, of course. What they do not do, is establish intentionality, i.e. meaning (semantic content), such as to support "communication."

Meaning and value require interpretation by a conscious agent which transcends such processes. In short, physical systems, however complex, do not automatically assume or take on intentional properties: They are still just processes. And this is true even if they involve complex, emergent properties or functions within a system.

So, my objection in the present case, is not a denial of either the ecosystem, or its complexity, or the "information transfer" encompassed within that system. The objection is that such a system can have intentionality, or meaning over and above such physical processes. Thus, elements of such systems interact, but do not communicate. The former involves only a network of physical interactions; the later consciousness and meaning assigned to such interactions.

[You can see from this discussion the heavy lifting imposed upon neuroscience. What has to be explained is not just the neural network, as a physical system, but the emergence of consciousness, the self, meaning and value, solely from such a physical system. Other than a form of religious "magic" explaining such emergence, it cannot be done in my view. (But see, Kauffman, Reinventing the Sacred. In my opinion this is the best, and most honest, attempt to derive meaning and value from the non-reductive, emergent properties of physical systems.)]

Thanks for clarifying that Henry, I now see what it is you took issue with.

I sometimes perceive our grand ability to contemplate things abstractly as just an evolved extension and addition to our other senses and abilities; one to further sense and interpret our environment with. In other words, just another developed extension of what those plants are demonstrating. The meaning would be our survival, and the value would be our existence (similar to the plants.) I sometimes even wonder if our ‘ability’ to contemplate things hasn’t born out to be more of a ‘disability’ and a distraction. Our abstract ‘reasoning’ and ‘rational’izing seems to often do more to disconnect us from interacting symbiotically with the natural world (which we depend on for our survival), than it does to connect us to it. (ie: economic, political, and religious systems, reactionary wars, self aggrandizement, etc, etc.)

But that’s a different discussion. Thanks again for clarifying your comment for me. I see where you’re coming from with your comments.

And as human beings are part of the ecosystem the trees also 'communicate' with us/our immune system by/via terpenes.

For those who speak German (hopefully there will be an English translation in the near future). It's really an interesting read.

http://www.pressenet.info/pr-2015/aktuell/biophilia-effekt-heilung-wald.html

https://www.fischundfleisch.com/blogs/panorama/der-biophilia-effekt-heilung-aus-dem-wald.html

https://hikingresearch.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/an-interview-with-forest-medicine-and-shinrin-yoku-researcher-dr-qing-li/