We are probably a few weeks away from seeing any trillium spring up in our woods around here. However, I recently developed this image from my archives as I’ve been thinking a lot about mother trees, also called hub or landmark trees, and their contributions to the surrounding biome of the forest. I thought this photograph portrayed the concept of Mother Trees quite well – almost serving as a guardian to the neighboring flora. And anytime I look at images of trillium, I think of the Trillium Challenge friend Howard Grill and I started so long, long ago. Looking at my blog archive – I see that was way back in 2007!! Where does the time go eh?
Anyway, this really wasn’t an attempt to photograph trillium in any “different” way – but more to portray a connection. Trillium tends to grow in forested areas, springing up before the canopy is too full to block sunlight in the Spring. So I was wondering just what this Mother Hub tree may be saying to these trillium at its base. What stories might it be telling about what is going on throughout its root system and the underground network it is connected to.
If any of this sounds a bit strange or foreign, I can’t recommend highly enough the work of Suzanne Simard who has done extensive research on how trees communicate. So I’ll encourage watching the TED talk below:
The relationships between trees and nearby plants became more obvious since I moved to Fidalgo Island. The little orchids that I came upon my first year here are often associated with Madrone trees. I’ve read that many plants here rely on their big Doug fir friends and I’m sure the list goes on. Your photo illustrates it nicely! I hope it’ll be a good year for trilliums. Thanks for the Suzanne Simard links, too – it’s great that her work is really getting recognized.
so much we just are starting to learn about eh?
There’s an excellent book by Richard Powers, “The Overstory” which is a story about a group of independent characters and their relationship to trees. One character was very similar to Suzanne and perhaps was based on her.
I started reading that book but for some reason didn’t finish – I was finding it hard to get into or got distracted, I don’t remember. 🙂
Ha! I shared her Ted Talk video this morning too. It’s nice to see your trillium even if an archival one. I am always eager for their return.
That’s too funny. As I started reading the post and I saw trillium the first thing that popped into my mind was our old trillium challenge. And then BOOM….right there in the post! But 2007?? Who woulda’ thunk it? Nice shot. Maybe we will get to share a few trillium pics again!
I tried to find your old trillium post I linked to, but it was on Blogspot and acting strange.
Loved the TED Talk! I find it interesting how the universe works. There is a network of communication happening between our personal lives also. My example is that I have been reading some Wendell Berry stuff and his view of the forest then I read your post and watch her video of the forest. I needed to read this Mark!
so glad you enjoyed! I find such work fascinating.