Subject: Re: Trees communicates???????

From: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 15:21:30 GMT

On 5 Jun 1995 07:54:36 -0400, 
OKDA  <[email-masked]> wrote:

>To my knowledge, trees and groups of trees communicate directly, if you
>can call it communication. Trees naturally form root grafts when they are
>next to each other, and therefore are connected together. in some
>situations an entire forested area may be physically ( and chemically )
>connected by root grafts  and could be viewed as one organism.
>[email-masked]
>David Alosi
>
Trees do form root grafts but they "generally" occur intraspecially (ie.red 
oak to red oak) and not interspecially (ie. red oak to white oak).  Such 
grafts are the primary mode of transmission of the oak wilt fungus from 
one tree to the next.  I know of no instance of intergeneral (ie. oak to 
maple) root grafting. Any info from anyone else?

Steve
Roseville, MN

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From: [email-masked] (Louise Gunderson)
Date: 17 Jun 1995 16:58:33 GMT

>maple) root grafting. Any info from anyone else?
There does seem to be evidence of interspecific root grafting.  Barbor,
Burk, and Pitts in Terestrial Plant Ecology, (Second Edition, 1986,
Benjamin/Cummings, Pgs. 139-140) cite a number of examples of this type
of linkage.  They also cite a hypothesis that the grafts are occurring
via mycorrhizal hyphae linkages between trees.

Louise
Denver, CO