Trees work together — support the weak ones to keep the whole forest going. They have senses, just not ours: time, temperature, whether they’re still alive by the green under the bark. They protect themselves, spread, live for centuries.
The light struggle isn’t much of a struggle. Water is the real one — greedy for it, and once it’s gone, they die. Deep roots though, and some live on almost no sunlight, changing their leaves instead.
They depend on fungi. Fungi depend on them right back.
Every species as different from the next as mammals are from each other, but underneath — trees are a lot like us. Except for one thing: a tree accepts wherever it was set to grow. We don’t. Free will
There’s more to the roots than meets the eye. Something like a brain, maybe.
Small creatures make up most of the world’s biomass. Animals eat what’s alive. Trees just eat nutrients.
Clouds empty out the further they get from the sea — forests are what let the rain reach that far inland.
Trees can taste sweeter or not, eaten in more forms than you’d think.
Let go of the branches you don’t need — leaves a gap, but only for a few years.
Expand vs exploit. Pests, local vs invasive, water, fire, colonizers, seed form — all the same pressures we deal with, just slower.
Packed soil is the real enemy — it fights the roots and the leaves both. Humans like variety, so we bring in other species whether the forest needs them or not.
Forests do move. Just at the pace of generations, not seasons — young trees grow too fast, old ones stabilize them, and some areas need to be left alone entirely to find that balance.