Llarina is an 84 year old friend of mine, living in a wooden house surrounded by forests, up in the mountains in Puerto Rico. Although a wooden house has small chances of being able to stand up to a hurricane, she decided to stay home since she takes care of stray dogs and no one would give her shelter unless she left her dogs at home. Her house was not damaged at all, and she attributed this to the big trees that surround her, protecting the house against the strong winds. Every May some of those trees bloom. There is even a children's song in Puerto Rico about the flowers that May bring to the island. This past May the trees did not bloom and Llarina thought the trees were sick. Not really, it seems as if they knew nature was planning a powerful surprise and waited until the hurricane passed through the island to bloom again in October, and show their beautiful flowers.
Suzanne Simard (the University of British Columbia) has pioneered research into how trees converse, including how fungal filigrees help trees send warning signals about environmental change, search for kin, and transfer their nutrients to neighboring plants before they die. I guess not only they communicate with each other, assist other plants, postpone giving birth to flowers, but take care of Llarina and her dogs.
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