This is called inosculation: when branches or roots of different trees are in prolonged intimate contact, they often abrade each other, exposing their inner tissues, which may eventually fuse.
It's not so much one tree feeding another as the formation of a new hybrid organism.
It's not so much one tree feeding another as the formation of a new hybrid organism.
https://twitter.com/RebeccaH2030/status/1395352584018399234
In this case, it looks like two beeches (which are partial to inosculation) fused their limbs. Later, the smaller tree's roots/lower trunk were cut away, yet it survived by continuing to exchange water and sugars with its other half. It had already become part of something bigger
Plants have an astounding ability to merge w/ one another & grafting is widely practiced in agriculture. It's very common for a fruit tree to be a hybrid: a fruit-bearing 'scion' (top part) grafted onto a hardy rootstock that grows well in local soil.
From McPhee's 'Oranges':
From McPhee's 'Oranges':
In addition to exchanging water, sugar & nutrients, grafted plants can trade chloroplasts and DNA.
Similar melding happens not only across species, but also across kingdoms of life. Trees & other plants are really composite creatures, part fungi & microbe nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Similar melding happens not only across species, but also across kingdoms of life. Trees & other plants are really composite creatures, part fungi & microbe nytimes.com/interactive/20…
I first understood the power of plant grafting when I wrote about pomato plants (hybrid tomato-potato plants) and 'fruit salad' trees that grow a mix of stone fruit, citrus, or apples/pears on a single root system (yes, they're real!) blogs.scientificamerican.com/brainwaves/the…
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