Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees

Page numbers in parentheses. Italics are my own questions of the text.

Chapter 10 Notes             Chapter 9 Notes      Chapter 8 Notes

Chapter 7 Notes               Chapter 6 Notes      Chapter 5 Notes

Chapters 3 & 4 Notes      Chapter 2 Notes      Foreword, Introductions, and Chapter 1 Notes

Chapter 11 Trees Aging Gracefully

bark = skin

• protects trees inner organs (61)

• without bark

• tree dries out

• fungi start breaking everything down

• insects also invade with lower moisture levels

tree adds .5 to 1 inch in girth

• trees renew skin and shed skin cells

young trees = smooth outer bark (62)

• as trees age wrinkles appear

• starting from bottom

• deepen over time

beeches

• high renewal rate

• skin thin

• matches girth

• doesn’t crack

pines

• shed slowly

• thick oak bark

• exterior layers decades old (63)

• outer layers originated when tree was young

beeches

• once they start to wrinkle

• mosses colonize nooks and crannies

• estimate tree age by height of green moss

• higher the moss, older the tree

canadian west coast (64)

• ancient growth

• sitka spruce

• 500 years old

• moss in branches and forks

• algae

• capture nitrogen

• rain washes nitrogen down trunk

• nitrogen is a fertilizer

• fertilizes young trees

old age

• after 100 – 300 years (65)

• crown growth gets shorter

• every tree gradually stops getting taller

• energy levels drop

• loses twigs top-down

• fungi advance inward (66)

• consume cellulose and lignin

• trees grows outward to counter

• trunk snaps