The Power of Trees

My arrival here in France coincides with late Autumn or early Winter. Naturally it means beautiful colours in all the trees and shrubs that lose their leaves when the cold really arrives.

The fruit trees that grow locally such as the Brugonon, which is a favourite of the local Catalon people of this area, and which is a cross between a peach and a plum, have almost all lost their leaves with the end of the fruiting season.

Photo courtesy of  Helen Parkes

Of course in the Southern hemisphere they are experiencing the growth that comes with the late spring and early summer so everything is green and colourful in a very different way.

Look at the picture opposite. This is the Pohutukawa or Native Christmas Tree which can be found in the northern coastal areas of Aotearoa, New Zealand. 

The flowers are loved by bees and the honey is a creamy white, sweet and delicious. The tree itself offers welcome shade at the beach for those who wish to avoid the damaging rays of a NZ summer sun. 

As a wiccan and a gardener I am very sensitive to the energy of the seasonal changes and embrace the feeling that I  get from all the seasons as they are each so different.

My particular favorite seasons are Autumn, Winter and Spring.

I have never really liked the Summer so much as I find it hard in the heat to cool down, whereas the cold of Winter means putting on more clothes and in particular those made with wool which I love to wear. 

If it is not wool, it is big thick jackets such as this one featured in this picture from somewhere in South America.

I was most grateful to receive this colourful warm jacket as a gift from friends of Fabrice upon first arriving in Mison, a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France. 

The autumn colourful trees that are either losing their leaves or have already lost their leaves here in Los Masos that I can identify include Oak, Sweet Chestnut, Elder, Ash, Beech, Hazel, Cedar, Apple, Brugonon, Maple and Birch. 

There may be more but I don't know their names. In fact trees are so varied in numbers and many of their species have crossed oceans to live,  sometimes thriving in foreign lands far from their origins joining the native trees of the place and maybe superseding them in numbers. Of course local birds help in the spreading of their seeds and then there are the gardeners. 

How lucky are we to have trees. 

At the present time with Fabrice I am gathering the fallen leaves around to put on the garden beds. 

When its hot I will appreciate the shade they provide and of course those that fruit help feed all the species that need to eat including us. 

Then there is the wood that they provide for construction from wooden houses to artisan crafted furniture and bowls.

Finally in some places the firewood they provide is essential for humans to stay warm over winter. 

And what about all the other species that rely on these trees for so many things-food, shelter and so on. Trees are so important for all that lives on this earth and have been for centuries-as the largest species on earth they provide oxygen, store carbon, stabilise the soil, and give life to all the worlds species. Without trees the earth as we know it is finished. Their loss is a huge threat to the environment and yet we live in a world where humans object to a tree being planted that might impact on their view!  

In La Clapisse in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department they grow apples and I walked past the orchards where the apple trees stood in long rows to sit out the winter. The commercial growing of trees for fruit, nuts and seeds has its own problems but that is a story for another time.                                                                                        

In the commercial orchard that I walked past there were a few trees at the end of a row with apples still hanging from their branches, but mostly it was finished and the trees seemed to me ready for the rest that winter would bring allowing their leaves to drop and fertilize the soil at their feet.  

Apparently, according to the locals that I have spoken to here in France, the Autumn has been late arriving and the trees have held onto their leaves much longer as a result.

It is only in the last few years that scientists have recognised how trees communicate and that in fact all plants "talk".  As a child I knew this and did not express this openly in case people thought I was crazy. 

However, thanks to a German forester named Peter Wohlleben and his book The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate we now understand that mycelium plays an important role, connecting individual plants together through what is called a “mycorrhizal network” dubbed by the scientific community as the “woodwide web”. 

The fine, hairlike root tips of trees join together with microscopic fungal filaments to form the basic links of the network, which appears to operate as a symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi, or perhaps an economic exchange. As a kind of fee for services, the fungi consume about 30 percent of the sugar that trees photosynthesize from sunlight. The sugar is what fuels the fungi, as they scavenge the soil for nitrogen, phosphorus and other mineral nutrients, which are then absorbed and consumed by the trees.

This network of communication allows individual plants together to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon and other minerals from plant to plant, tree to tree.

In fact, Peter Wohlleben's observations in the forest, now scientifically recognised, demonstrate that trees are far more alert, social, sophisticated and “intelligent” than humans have understood. 

I could go on to discuss the arrogance of our species in thinking we are the dominant ones with the greatest intelligence on this planet but I will leave that also for another time. 

At the Christmas market last week here in Los Masos they were selling roasted chestnuts-so delicious with salt. I feel very blessed to have been able to try them again cooked this way after so long- the ones I have tried in NZ have mostly been boiled in a pot of water and then split and eaten-still delicious but not quite the same as those roasted on a brazier fire.

The Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year here in France, will arrive on the 21st  December, but at present it doesn't quite feel like winter because there is still so much colour everywhere, not just on the trees but on the ground from the fallen leaves which are also beautiful to behold.

In Aotearoa New Zealand in contrast on the 21st the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year will be happening. It is completely different energy and for me it feels very strange being on the same planet with such contrasting nature occurring at the same time.

There is snow on some of the surrounding mountain peaks however, and I am sure further north where it is less desert like and more vulnerable to cold throughout the whole day Winter has arrived.

Here in Los Masos the temperature varies widely throughout the day. 

In the morning it can be 0 degrees, but by midday its so hot at 24-30 degrees all the winter woolies have to be discarded especially when under the direct sun.

As a reminder of the heat I left behind in Perth I share two pictures of the trees I can see there as Christmas comes-they are both found throughout Western Australia where I was for a few days on my way to Europe.   

The first is what "westies" call the Australian Christmas tree-the Nuytsia floribunda. To the local Aboriginal people its name is Moodjar. It is the largest parasitic plant in the world as it attaches its roots to other plants and sucks their sap. It is related to mistletoe and technically is a hemi-parasite as it is able to sustain itself through photosynthesis without a host.

Its a far cry from the red Pohutukawa that is the Native Christmas tree of Aotearoa, New Zealand but is still beautiful with its orange flowers. 

The second tree I saw flowering in Perth is the Jacaranda. 

This tree is so prevalent in Australia that many living there will think of it as a native tree of that land.  

However, Jacaranda is actually native to South America, and the most common variety in Australia, Jacaranda mimosifolia, may be from an Argentine source.

I remember once, many years ago flying into Sydney to see below hundreds of flowering Jacaranda trees with their purple beauty visible from the plane throughout the city.

This last photo is of a Native NZ Kauri Tree-only 800 years old so a youngster compared to the famous tane mahuta also called "god of the forest" located in the Waipoua Forest of Northland, Aotearoa and visited by so many overseas tourists as well as locals. 

This tree can be found in the Parry Kauri Park of Warkworth. At this time visitors of the park were able to go right up to the tree and touch it but the "Kauri dieback" problem which is now impacting and killing the species has stopped people being able to go right up to the tree.  

Kauri dieback is a plant disease caused by the microscopic soil borne pathogen Phytopthora agathidicida. Spores from the pathogen infect the kauri roots an damage the tissues thereby preventing the uptake of water and nutrients causing the death of the tree.

I have faith that nature ultimately is in control for better or worse. Maybe if humans just minded their own business and didn't interfere so much by upsetting the balance for our own self interest, including greed often at the expense of biodiversity, then all will be well with plants and trees in particular.   

Such discussions are also for another time and place

Here in Los Masos in December 2022 I give thanks for the Autumn and the Winter to come and for being able to enjoy the colours of the late Autumn Trees and those I saw while visiting Western Australia. Actually I give thanks for trees in general where ever they are and all they provide to the planet on which I live.