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Writer's pictureCrone

One tree or three?

I believe these trees to be limes - as I am sure that I thought they were when they had leaves on them and limes to get all sprouty.

It brought to mind something. Lime trees attract hordes of aphids and lose many many leaves to them which is hard on the trees. For them, of course, the aphids could be seen as predators. Well, they are predators. However, the aphids drop vast quantities of honeydew around the base of the tree. Limes are not among the trees who have a relationship with nitrogen fixing bacteria. It is now suggested that the honeydew, which is feasted upon by a powdery black fungus, may be leading to the creation of the conditions suitable for nitrogen fixing bacteria in the soil around the roots of the Tilia. The aphids become, as it were, food.


Symbiosis may be more complicated than me hosting bacteria who help me digest food: instead symbiosis may be something much wider. We all feed the soil. The soil feeds all.


In one sense we are all fertiliser, in another sense we are all atmosphere-builders, in yet another we are all meaning-makers. If we are all making the same soil, the same atmosphere, the same meaning, it works.


Anyway. What started me off was whether these... growths are singular or plural. Colin Tudge says singular because you could sever the connecting roots and all the trees would live on... but it's maybe like Siamese twins... I expect they share resources if not organs. Mybe they wouldn't live so well.

Is this an ancient coppice? Ir just a sprouty lime? If it is a lime.


Glad my training for the Oberservatree Tree Monitoring thingummy starts next week. I clearly need training.

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maplekey4
Apr 19, 2023

Limes/aphids/fungus -- neat example of wider-symbiosis definition... yeah, maybe the lime(s) is an old coppice. I found the website for Observeatree. Looks like a worthwhile program..

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