00:00If you asked me a few years ago whether trees had intelligence, I'd have said no.
00:04Of course not.
00:05They're just plants.
00:07But as my knowledge of trees has grown, so has my certainty that trees are much more than just plants.
00:14They have all kinds of sensory abilities and problem-solving skills.
00:18And in this episode, we're going to look at the evidence for tree intelligence
00:22and what might happen if intelligence literally did grow on trees.
00:27Trees sense gravity, touch, temperature, moisture, light, chemicals, and even magnetic fields.
00:33They respond to their environment, adapt to it, and even anticipate changes in it.
00:38And they do all of this without a nervous system.
00:41Let's start with the basics.
00:42Are trees even capable of sensing things?
00:45Well, yes, they can.
00:47In fact, they have a number of ways of sensing their environment.
00:51For example, trees can sense gravity.
00:53This is important for them because, like us, trees need to keep their water
00:57and nutrient-bearing tissues above ground in contact with the air.
01:01If they grew in all directions, they would eventually collapse under their own weight.
01:05So instead, trees have evolved to grow up.
01:08How do they know which way is up?
01:10Well, they can sense gravity thanks to special cells in their roots called statocytes.
01:15These cells contain tiny particles called statoliths,
01:19which are like little weights that settle at the bottom of the cell.
01:21And since gravity pulls down, the statoliths always end up on the underside of the root cells.
01:27The cells can then sense the position of the statoliths
01:30and signal the rest of the root to grow around them,
01:32ensuring that the roots take the right path down into the earth.
01:35Due to the root of the root cells...
01:35...to the root cells was not really ancient.
01:36If they're not good at the root cells...
01:36Because they give them each other, submit one another.
01:36...そう they take the right path down into the foe...
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