Our mothers share with us, since the moment we are born, all of their knowledge, love and protection. Did you know that is the same with trees? Here we are going to tell you who is the Amazon rainforest’s Mother tree.
The rainforest as a family
In the woods, every species, every being, and every detail plays an important role, that is why we can’t pretend to keep an ecosystem working the way it should once one of these components disappears.
They help each other and they evolve together. For example, hundreds of animals nourish from the tree’s fruits, and then, they help to disperse the seed throughout the woods.
Besides, every living being in the forest is capable of communicating with each other, not only the fauna, but the flora too. Turns out that all of the Amazon rainforest can communicate within!! Even between two trees being kilometers away from each other. But how?
La Wood Wide Web
Connecting every tree’s roots there is a gigantic fungus net. The fungi family, one that we still have so much to investigate from, helps to create a subterrain internet for the whole forest: organic and natural. This has been called the Wood Wide Web.
Through the subsoil, the forest is interconnected, sharing information and allowing trees and plants to communicate with each other even at long distances about possible threats. Could be droughts, plagues, or other survival challenges, the whole forest is aware of what is happening in each of it’s corners, and all thanks to the nature’s Wood Wide Web.
lllustration of the Wood Wide Web (Antonio Di Bacco)
The rainforest’s Mother tree
Then, who would be the wood’s mother? In this celebrated day dedicated to the ones that brought us to this world, we think it is symbolic to celebrate the ones that keep this world alive: the giant trees, like the Shihuahuaco. Also known as the “mother tree”, they can live hundreds of years, accumulating lots of knowledge and experiences. The Shihuahuaco is one of the most important pillars of the Amazon ecosystem, just like our mothers at home.
In ARBIO’s forest we have found trees between 500 to 1300 years old, can you imagine? The oldest trees were already growing since the Inca empire, and they have managed to grow and prevail through all this time. A true natural alive relic!
Thank you mom! Thank you Shihuahuaco!
Just like our mother nourishes when we are little, the big trees of the Amazon like the Shihuahuaco provide us all with the vital liquid. It extracts water from underground with its roots, then transports it through its trunk all the way up to its leaves, and through the transpiration, frees water vapor into the sky. This process generates a gigantic humidity flow that provokes rains, feeding the snowy mountains and therefore, the rivers that are born from them!
These are some of the functions that the Amazon giant ancient trees perform, allowing the balance of the Amazon’s ecosystem and our well-being. It’s such a mother!
Let’s celebrate with all our love our own mothers, the mother trees of the forests, and our Mother Earth.