The crown shyness phenomenon was first described in the 1920s and it was named by Maxwell R. Jacobs in 1955. Jacobs and others have realized that in some forests, trees avoid touching each other with their crowns. Until today, we are still not really sure why they are doing it, although we can guess. Nevertheless, it is another example of the fact, that nature is the most fascinating thing one can find.
Crown Shyness Is About Cooperation
The most common description of the tree´s behavior in the forest is that it tries to get a competitive advantage over other trees by rising higher and wider to get more sunshine. However, it seems that in some forests, trees rather cooperate as it brings more advantages than pure competition.
We assume that trees are doing it because they “know” that it will bring them an advantage. Some space between crowns will allow sunlight to go through the free space which helps all trees in the group. Also, some distance between trees will make it harder for parasites to travel from one to another (it seems that also trees know about social distancing).
Trees Are Talking To Each Other
The logical conclusion of the described phenomenon is that trees are able to communicate. It is not completely new, scientists already know that trees can “talk” to each other. They do it by several means – chemical, hormonal and electrical signals. Some theories postulate that trees can communicate even by sounds (have you ever heard a forest whispering? Was it really just a wind playing with their crowns?).
However, we are far from the true understanding of how they are doing it. For example, we are not sure how trees communicate with their own body as they do not have a nervous system. But we know that the tree will generate biological signals similar to those our own tissue will generate when dying.
For me, the conclusion is clear – we are just at the beginning of a real understanding of all secrets of nature. Maybe there is much more in trees than we know.
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