The mother tree project

Mother Trees are the biggest trees in the forest that are connected and communicate with the other tree s and plants forest.

• Through their research, Dr. Simard and others have discovered that trees are connected below-ground via a vast fungal network.
• On May 4, 2021, Mother Tree Project Lead Dr. Suzanne Simard released her first book, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.
• In this moving and powerful memoir, Dr. Simard writes of her own life and research, weaving together her scientific discoveries and insights about tree communication with her deeply personal story of love and loss.
• You can find out more about Suzanne’s book on her website at suzannesimard.com.

Trees form mycorrhizae (literally meaning “fungus-root”), which are symbiotic relationships between trees and fungi. These mycorrhizal fungi have many branching threads (called mycelium) that grow out from the root tip of a tree and connect with the roots of other trees and plants to form a mycorrhizal network. The mycelium spans vast areas connecting trees and plants across a forest in an expansive underground network.

Recognizing the importance of Mother Trees and the vast below ground network connecting all trees has added to the understanding of how forests work. These connections have been known for a long time by Aboriginal peoples and the research of Dr. Simard and others has demonstrated scientifically that forests are deeply connected and collaborative places.

• Trees are part of a large, interconnected community interacting with their own and other species, including forming kin relationships with their genetic relatives.
• In mapping the fungal network, her research has shown that the biggest and oldest trees are the most connected nodes in the forest. These highly-connected hub trees, also known as Mother Trees, share their excess carbon and nitrogen through the mycorrhizal network with the understory seedlings, which can increase seedling survival. These Mother Trees in this way act as central hubs, communicating with the young seedlings around them. In a single forest, a Mother Tree can be connected to hundreds of other trees.
• Research has shown that kin seedlings receive more carbon from Mother Trees than stranger seedlings do. The Mother Tree sends carbon to other seedlings in the neighbourhood as well.
• Additional research has shown that large hub trees (that are called Mother Trees) transmit carbon through the mycorrhizal network to young seedlings in need. The carbon moves along a source-sink gradient, where the larger tree is the source of carbon and the seedling is the sink.

"Mother Trees and the Social Forest" was given on June 15, 2021 as part of Long Now's Seminar series.