Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees

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

Chapter 11 Notes              Chapter 12 Notes

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 13 – Specialists

once a seed lands, there’s not many transportation opportunities (73)

• once it sprouts, it’s stuck in that spot for life

• trees want:

• nutrient rich loose crumbly soil

• aerated to a depth of many feet (74)

• not too hot in summer

• not too cold in winter

• moderate snowfall

• fall storms moderated by hills or mountain ridges

• not too many fungi in forest

• if all this occurred competition would be won by beeches

when you look at a forest or woods after reading this book you realize every tree out there is a goddamn miracle

• spruce (75)

• can get foothold where summer is short and winter cold

• store oils in needles and bark

• antifreeze

• even with just a few weeks of photosynthesis can grow an inch or two in a year

• holding needles is risky

• snowfall can break a tree

• so it grows a STRAIGHT trunk

• branch angles down as snow falls on them (76)

• most snow falls around not on

• needles present more surface area to wind

• protected by slow rate of growth

•yew

• grows under beeches

• only gets 3% of available light

• 100 years to reach 20 – 30 feet and sexual maturity

• herbivores nibble them down

• dying beeches can bury it

• builds up its root system (77)

• stores nutrients

• grows right back

• multiple trunks merge at advanced age

• live to 1000+ years

• no more than 65 ft tall

• hornbeam

• related to birch

• tries to imitate yew

• low light

• grows to only 65 ft

• if it gets enough light

• grows in severe drought and shade

• alder

• don’t grow as tall as competitors

• can grow on swampy ground

• air ducts inside roots

• transport oxygen to tiniest tips

• like divers connected to surface via breathing tube

• cork cells in lower trunk

• allow air to enter when underwater

• but after extended period underwater alders can weaken

• fungi eats