A Tree's Indomitable Will to Survive
Today I noticed something peculiar while I was having a walk with the dog in the foggy forest. The road was muddy so I decided to go away from the path, and then I saw this weird tree stump:
This tree must have been cut down years ago and it doesn't look like there were any new sprouts coming out, but to me it's obvious that the stump was trying to close and heal the devastating wound for a very long time. I looked at the other tree stumps around and they all looked different - just a clean cut, no bark trying to close it. I was wondering whether this tree was different or maybe the place it was growing at.
This might be something very normal and I just didn't notice before, but it made me think of how indestructible life actually is. It's not fragile at all, it's huge, it's beyond measure. Just our human petty egos are fragile. Life doesn't give a shit, it persists! And so does freedom and creativity! They will try to cut it down, to poison it, to bury it, but it will keep coming back even better and stronger!
Anyway, this tree also made me think of this old painting of mine:
The Wound, 1996
Collage/acrylic on fiberboard
50 x 40 cm / 19.69 x 15.75 in
www.gric.at
There is now scientific evidence that plants are not dumb plants, but also communicate and work together as communities. There is even evidence that some communities of trees will keep each other alive.
There are some species of trees that I have seen that simply cutting them down does not kill them, and they continue to grow.
Yeah, they are running a decentralized network based on a wooden blockchain! :-)
Did you know, that the root-networks of trees can be connected? It is possible that a nearby tree actually "overtook" this trees root-system and is now using it. It is scientifically proven (I am studying forestry). Did you read "Das geheime Leben der Bäume"? You might like it, there is a lot going on that is only revealed to the persevering observer :)
Didn't know pines are connected through their roots. But that makes sense. No, I didn't read that book, I'll look it up, thanks!
Geiles Foto!!!!
There is a wonderful book about it. Trees communicate mostly through their roots. When one tree, is for example, sick, the other trees can feed it through the roots and so it can survive for a long time. They also send each other electric signals. When trees are in danger, they send an odor in the air to warn the neighbor trees. Here is a link of the book. You can find it also as an audio book on audible. https://www.thalia.at/shop/home/rubrikartikel/ID40981527.html?ProvID=10907922
Yes, @geniusloci mentioned that book already here. I was there again this morning and it looks like this tree was in the middle of a small group, so it's very likely that the roots of all these pines are connected.
I think it's still alive because the other tree stumps are rotten and eroded:
Thank you for the photos, sorry I did not see that someone else wrote about the same book;)
I spent time in the rainforests on the Canadian West coast, in particular on Vancouver Island. You cannot walk there without sinking knee-deep into the muck, and big ferns towering over you. So they built elevated walkways for you to explore. The fallen giant cedars are called nurse logs: there are new trees growing out of them. Same happens with trees that are struck by lighting. I painted them. Maybe I should post those paintings some time. I was inspired by a Austrian Artist living in Canada, Ernest Lindner, a great teacher who painted 2 distinct things: Nature close-ups like these trees, and nude women. Sometimes he combined the two.
nature is really wise and will always find the way to survive, because this is the mother nature, only we believe that the most intelligent and evolved of the earth can believe us all owners, when we are among the less evolved species, we need a great way to travel evolutionarily, these trees that give life, that thanks to them exists the oxygen that we breathe, have millions of years of advantage over us.
I'm amazed that I missed this sharing !!
Fantastic light, gorgeous post-production, depth of field, composition, I love your photos.
you are truly a forest master. There are a number of different ways in which you ave presented this to us and you manage to get new beauty out of essentially the same scene. Love your eye for spotting new ways of doing the same. and the picture you made of course. it's a real art piece! congrats my friend
Mother Nature, this concept is greatly expressed in the movie Moana
I'm telling you... run for your life and don't look back!
There is at least slender man in that forest. And probably few ghosts...
:-)
Looks more like a T-rex food that came out from his rear part :D