- There's an interesting hypothesis that humans didn't really "see" blue until modern times when textiles forced us to give it a name
- power of language impacting what we see and our reality
- Nature needs to be seen not only through a lens of competition, but also through the lens of cooperation and community
- Trees store memories, respond to attacks, and transfer sugar solution, and perhaps even memories, to their offspring. All these abilities suggest that they must also have a brain. But no one has yet found such a thing
- Old Tjikko could grow to be as old as it is only because it grows especially slowly. Tjikko's rate of growth is dictated by its environment. The growing reason up here is extremely short. Winters are long and hard. There is not much time to get even a small amount of photosynthesis going. Over and over again, heavy loads of snow bent the tree's tiny trunk, so a side branch took on the job of growing upward, creating a new vertical trunk. This means that the "tree" we see today is only a few hundred years old. The true old spruce is to be found in the roots and in the brushy growth covering the ground.
What I got out of it
- I was disappointed with this book. There's wasn't much of a narrative or deep dive on any topic, just a random collection of mildly interesting facts. If you're going to read one of his books, make it The Hidden Life of Trees
