Do Plants Think?

Scientist Daniel Chamovitz unveils the surprising world of plants that see, feel, smell—and remember

By Gareth Cook

What a Plant Knows, Daniel Chamowitz, FSG Books - Daniel Chamowitz

How aware are plants? This is the central question behind a fascinating new book, “What a Plant Knows,” by Daniel Chamovitz, director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University. A plant, he argues, can see, smell and feel. It can mount a defense when under siege, and warn its neighbors of trouble on the way. A plant can even be said to have a memory. But does this mean that plants think — or that one can speak of a “neuroscience” of the flower? Chamovitz answered questions from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook.

1. How did you first get interested in this topic?

My interest in the parallels between plant and human senses got their start when I was a young postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Xing-Wang Deng at Yale University in the mid 1990s. I was interested in studying a biological process that would be specific to plants, and would not be connected to human biology (probably as a response to the six other “doctors” in my family, all of whom are physicians). So I was drawn to the question of how plants sense light to regulate their development.

It had been known for decades that plants use light not only for photosynthesis, but also as a signal that changes the way plants grow. In my research I discovered a unique group of genes necessary for a plant to determine if it’s in the light or in the dark. When we reported our findings, it appeared these genes were unique to the plant kingdom, which fit well with my desire to avoid any thing touching on human biology. But much to my surprise and against all of my plans, I later discovered that this same group of genes is also part of the human DNA.

This led to the obvious question as to what these seemingly “plant-specific” genes do in people.  Many years later, we now know that these same genes are important in animals for the timing of cell division, the axonal growth of neurons, and the proper functioning of the immune system.

But most amazingly, these genes also regulate responses to light in animals! While we don’t change our form in response to light as plants do, we are affected by lab at the level of our internal clock. Our internal circadian clocks keep us on a 24 hour rhythm, which is why when we travel half way around the world we experience jet lag. But this clock can be reset by light. A few years ago I showed, in collaboration with Justin Blau at NYU, that mutant fruit flies that were missing some of these genes lost the ability to respond to light. In other words, if we changed their clocks, they remained in jetlag.

This led me to realize that the genetic difference between plants and animals is not as significant as I had once naively believed. So while not actively researching this field, I began to question the parallels between plant and human biology even as my own research evolved from studying plant responses to light to leukemia in fruit flies.

2. How do think people should change how they think about plants?

People have to realize that plants are complex organisms that live rich, sensual lives. You know many of us relate to plants as inanimate objects, not much different from stones. Even the fact that many people substitute silk flowers for real ones, or artificial Christmas trees for a live one, is exemplary at some level of how we relate to plants. You know, I don’t know anyone who keeps a stuffed dog in place of a real one!

But if we realize that all of plant biology arises from the evolutionary constriction of the “rootedness” that keep plants immobile, then we can start to appreciate the very sophisticated biology going on in leaves and flowers. If you think about it, rootedness is a huge evolutionary constraint. It means that plants can’t escape a bad environment, can’t migrate in the search of food or a mate. So plants had to develop incredibly sensitive and complex sensory mechanisms that would let them survive in ever changing environments. I mean if you’re hungry or thirsty, you can walk to the nearest watering hole (or bar). If you’re hot, you can move north, if you’re looking for a mate, you can go out to a party. But plants are immobile. They need to see where their food is. They need to feel the weather, and they need to smell danger. And then they need to be able to integrate all of this very dynamic and changing information. Just because we don’t see plants moving doesn’t mean that there’s not a very rich and dynamic world going on inside the plant.

3. You say that plants have a sense of smell?

Sure. But to answer this we have to define for ourselves what “smell” is. When we smell something, we sense a volatile chemical that’s dissolved in the air, and then react in someway to this smell. The clearest example in plants is what happens during fruit ripening. You may have heard that if you put a ripe and an unripe fruit together in the same bag, the unripe one will ripen faster. This happens because the ripe one releases a ripening pheromone into the air, and the green fruit smells it and then starts ripening itself. This happens not only in our kitchens, but also, or even primarily, in nature. When one fruit starts to ripen, it releases this hormone which is called ethylene, which is sensed by neighboring fruits, until entire trees and groves ripen more or less in synchrony.

Another example of a plant using smell is how a parasitic plant called dodder finds its food. Dodder can’t do photosynthesis, and so has to live off of other plants. The way it finds its host plant is by smelling. A dodder can detect minute amounts of chemicals released in the air by neighboring plants, and will actually pick the one that it finds tastiest! In one classic experiment scientists showed that dodder prefers tomato to wheat because it prefers the smell.

3a. How about hearing?

This is a bit trickier because while loads of research support the idea that plants see, smell, taste and feel, support for plant auditory prowess is indirectly proportional to the amount of anecdotal information we have about the ways in which music may influence how a plant grows. Many of us have heard stories about plants flourishing in rooms with classical music. Typically, though, much of the research on music and plants was, to put it mildly, not carried out by investigators grounded in the scientific method. Not surprisingly, in most of these studies, the plants thrived in music that the experimenter also preferred.

From an evolutionary perspective, it also could be that plants haven’t really needed to hear. The evolutionary advantage created from hearing in humans and other animals serves as one way our bodies warn us of potentially dangerous situations. Our early human ancestors could hear a dangerous predator stalking them through the forest, while today we hear the motor of an approaching car. Hearing also enables rapid communication between individuals and between animals. Elephants can find each other across vast distances by vocalizing subsonic waves that rumble around objects and travel for miles. A dolphin pod can find a dolphin pup lost in the ocean through its distress chirps. What’s common in all of these situations is that sound enables a rapid communication of information and a response, which is often movement—fleeing from a fire, escaping from attack, finding family.

But plants are rooted, sessile organisms. While they can grow toward the sun, and bend with gravity, they can’t flee. They can’t escape. They don’t migrate with the seasons. As such, perhaps the audible signals we’re used to in our world are irrelevant for a plant.

All that being said, I have to cover myself hear by pointing out that some very recent research hints that plants may respond to sounds. Not to music mind you, which is irrelevant for a plant, but to certain vibrations. It will be very interesting to see how this pans out.

4. Do plants communicate with each other?

At a basic level, yes.  But I guess it centers around how you define communication. There is no doubt that plants respond to cues from other plants. For example, if a maple tree is attacked by bugs, it releases a pheromone into the air that is picked up by the neighboring trees. This induces the receiving trees to start making chemicals that will help it fight off the impending bug attack. So on the face of it, this is definitely communication.

But I think we also have to ask the question of intent (if we can even use that word when describing plants, but humor me while I anthropomorphize). Are the trees communicating, meaning is that attacked tree warning its surrounding ones? Or could it be more subtle? Maybe it makes more sense that the attacked branch is communicating to the other branches of the same tree in an effort for self survival, while the neighboring trees, well they’re just eavesdropping and benefiting from the signal.

There are also other examples of this type of communication. For example a very recent study showed that plants also communicate through signals passed from root to root. In this case the “talking” plant had been stressed by drought, and it “told” its neighboring plants to prepare for a lack of water. We know the signal went through the roots because this never happened if the two plants were simply in neighboring pots. They had to have neighboring roots.

5. Do plants have a memory?

Plants definitely have several different forms of memory, just like people do. They have short term memory, immune memory and even transgenerational memory! I know this is a hard concept to grasp for some people, but if memory entails forming the memory (encoding information), retaining the memory (storing information), and recalling the memory (retrieving information), then plants definitely remember. For example a Venus Fly Trap needs to have two of the hairs on its leaves touched by a bug in order to shut, so it remembers that the first one has been touched. But this only lasts about 20 seconds, and then it forgets. Wheat seedlings remember that they’ve gone through winter before they start to flower and make seeds. And some stressed plants give rise to progeny that are more resistant to the same stress, a type of transgenerational memory that’s also been recently shown also in animals. While the short term memory in the venus fly trap is electricity-based, much like neural activity, the longer term memories are based in epigenetics — changes in gene activity that don’t require alterations in the DNA code, as mutations do, which are still passed down from parent to offspring.

6. Would you say, then, that plants “think”?

No I wouldn’t, but maybe that’s where I’m still limited in my own thinking! To me thinking and information processing are two different constructs. I have to be careful here since this is really bordering on the philosophical, but I think purposeful thinking necessitates a highly developed brain and autonoetic, or at least noetic, consciousness. Plants exhibit elements of anoetic consciousness which doesn’t include, in my understanding, the ability to think.  Just as a plant can’t suffer subjective pain in the absence of a brain, I also don’t think that it thinks.

7. Do you see any analogy between what plants do and what the human brain does? Can there be a neuroscience of plants, minus the neurons?

First off, and at the risk of offending some of my closest friends, I think the term plant neurobiology is as ridiculous as say, human floral biology. Plants do not have neuron just as humans don’t have flowers!

But you don’t need neurons in order to have cell to cell communication and information storage and processing.  Even in animals, not all information is processed or stored only in the brain. The brain is dominant in higher-order processing in more complex animals, but not in simple ones.  Different parts of the plant communicate with each other, exchanging information on cellular, physiological and environmental states. For example root growth is dependent on a hormonal signal that’s generated in the tips of shoots and transported to the growing roots, while shoot development is partially dependent on a signal that’s generated in the roots. Leaves send signals to the tip of the shoot telling them to start making flowers.  In this way, if you really want to do some major hand waving, the entire plant is analogous to the brain.

But while plants don’t have neurons, plants both produce and are affected by neuroactive chemicals! For example, the glutamate receptor is a neuroreceptor in the human brain necessary for memory formation and learning. While plants don’t have neurons, they do have glutamate receptors and what’s fascinating is that the same drugs that inhibit the human glutamate receptor also affect plants. From studying these proteins in plants, scientists have learned how glutamate receptors mediate communication from cell to cell. So maybe the question should be posed to a neurobiologist if there could be a botany of humans, minus the flowers!

Darwin, one of the great plant researchers, proposed what has become known as the “root-brain” hypothesis. Darwin proposed that the tip of the root, the part that we call the meristem, acts like the brain does in lower animals, receiving sensory input and directing movement. Several modern-day research groups are following up on this line of research.

Article Source: Scientific American: Do Plants Think?

http://themindunleashed.org/2013/06/amazing-facts-about-plants-and.html

Plants Exhibit The Same Senses As Humans And See, Touch, Smell, Hear and Even Taste

By: Daniel Chamovitz, Director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University In Israel, Guest Contributor

Have you ever wondered what the grass under your feet feels, what an apple tree smells, or a marigold sees? Plants stimulate our senses constantly, but most of us never consider them as sensory beings too. In fact senses are extremely important to plants. Whatever life throws at them, they remain rooted to the spot – they cannot migrate in search of food, escape a swarm of locusts or find shelter from a storm. To grow and survive in unpredictable conditions, plants need to sense their environment and react accordingly. Some people may not be comfortable describing what plants do as seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. They certainly lack noses, eyes, ears, mouths and skin, but in what follows, I hope to convince you that the sensory world of plants is not so very different from our own. 

Plants have scientifically been show to draw alternative sources of energy from other plants. Plants influence each other in many ways and they communicate through “nanomechanical oscillations” vibrations on the tiniest atomic or molecular scale or as close as you can get to telepathic communication. However, their sense and communication are measurable in very much the ways as are humans.

SIGHT

What do plants see? The obvious answer is that, like us, they see light. Just as we have photoreceptors in our eyes, they have their own throughout their stems and leaves. These allow them to differentiate between red and blue, and even see wavelengths that we cannot, in the far red and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. Plants also see the direction light is coming from, can tell whether it is intense or dim and can judge how long ago the lights were turned off.

Studies have shown that plants bend to the light as if hungry for the sun’s rays, which is exactly what they are. Photosynthesis uses light energy to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar, so plants need to detect light sources to get food.

We now know they do this using phototropins – light receptors in the membranes of cells in the plant’s tip. Phototropins are sensitive to blue light. When they sense it, they initiate a cascade of signals that ends up modulating the activity of the hormone auxin. This causes cells on the shaded side of the stem to elongate, bending the plant towards the light.

Plants see red light using receptors in their leaves called phytochromes. A phytochrome is a sort of light-activated switch: when irradiated with red light, it changes its conformation so that it is primed to detect far-red light, and when irradiated by far red it changes back to the form that is sensitive to red light. This has two key functions. It allows plants to “turn off” at the end of the day – because far-red light predominates at sunset – and wake up again next day when the sun is high enough in the sky for red light to switch their phytochromes back on. It also allows them to sense when they are in the shade. Chlorophyll, the main pigment for photosynthesis, absorbs red but not far-red light, so when a plant is being crowded out by other plants it will see more far-red light than when it is growing in full sunshine. This directly influences the level of activated phytochromes, causing the plant to grow rapidly to get better exposure to the sun.

Phototropins and phytochromes are completely different from the photoreceptors found in animals’ eyes, although all consist of a protein connected to a chemical dye that absorbs the light. There is one type of photoreceptor, however, that we share. During daylight hours, cryptochromes within cells detect blue and UV light, using this signal to set an organism’s internal clock or circadian rhythms. In plants, this clock regulates many processes, including leaf movements and photosynthesis. So sight even helps plants tell the time.

TOUCH

Plants live in a very tactile world. Branches sway in the wind, insects crawl across leaves, and vines search out supports to hang on to. Plants are even sensitive to hot and cold, allowing them to respond to the weather by doing things like changing their growth rates and modulating their use of water. Simply touching or shaking a plant is often enough to reduce its growth, which is why vegetation in windswept locations tends to be stunted.

All plants can sense mechanical forces to some degree, but tactile sensitivity is most obvious in the carnivorous Venus flytrap. When a fly, beetle or even a small frog crawls across its specially adapted leaves, these spring together with surprising force, sandwiching the unsuspecting prey and blocking its escape. The Venus flytrap (pictured) knows when to shut because it feels its prey touching large hairs on the two lobes of the trap. But it won’t just snap shut with any stimulation – at least two hair touches must occur within about 20 seconds of each other. This helps to ensure that the prey is the ideal size and will not be able to wiggle out of the trap once it closes.

The mechanism by which the Venus flytrap feels its prey is uncannily similar to the way you feel a fly crawling on your arm. Touch receptors in your skin sense the insect and activate an electrical current that passes along nerves until it reaches your brain, which registers the fly’s presence and instigates a response. Likewise, when a fly rubs up against the Venus flytrap’s hairs, it induces a current that radiates throughout the leaves. This activates ion channels in the cell membrane and the trap springs shut, all in less than one-tenth of a second.

Although most plants do not react this fast, they feel a mechanical stimulus in the same way. What’s really fascinating is that even at the level of individual cells, plants and animals use similar proteins to feel things. These mechanoreceptors are embedded in the cell membranes and, when stimulated by mechanical pressure or distortion, they allow charged ions to cross the membrane. This creates a difference in electrical charge between the inside and the outside of the cell, which generates a current. Unlike us, plants lack a brain to translate these signals into sensations with emotional connotations. Nevertheless, their sensitivity to touch allows them to respond to their changing environments in specific and appropriate ways.

SMELL

The parasitic vine called dodder is the sniffer dog of the vegetable world. It contains almost no chlorophyll – the pigment that most plants use to make food – so to eat it must suck the sugary sap from other plants. Dodder uses olfaction to hunt down its quarry. It can distinguish potential victims from their smell, homing in on its favourites and also using scents emitted by unhealthy specimens to avoid them (Science, vol 313, p 1964).

Dodder is exceptionally sensitive to odours, but all plants have a sense of smell. In animals, sensors in the nose recognise and bind with molecules in the air. Plants also have receptors that respond to volatile chemicals. What do they smell?

Back in the 1920s, researchers with the US Department of Agriculture demonstrated that treating unripe fruit with ethylene gas would induce it to ripen. Since then, it has become apparent that all ripening fruits emit ethylene in copious amounts, can smell it, and respond by ripening. This ensures not only that a fruit ripens uniformly but also that neighbouring ones ripen together, producing more ethylene and leading to a ripening cascade. Coordinated ripening is important because it attracts animals to eat the fruit and disperse the seeds. Ethylene is a plant hormone that regulates many processes, so being able to smell it has other advantages too, such as in the coordination of leaf-colour changes in the autumn.

Above all, however, smell allows plants to communicate. Research in the 1980s showed that healthy trees in the vicinity of caterpillar-infested ones were resistant to the pests because their leaves contained chemicals that made them unpalatable. Other trees isolated from the infestation did not produce these chemicals, so it seemed that the attacked trees had sent an airborne pheromonal message that primed healthy trees to prepare for imminent attack. We now know that many volatile chemicals are involved.

TASTE

Our senses of smell and taste are intimately entwined. Conceptually, smells enhance or dampen tastes sensed by our tongues. Physically, our mouths and nasal cavities are connected so that our noses can pick up smells released as food is chewed. The major difference is that smell deals with volatile chemicals and taste senses soluble chemicals.

The two senses are also connected in plants. This is best seen in their responses to attacks by insects or pathogenic bacteria. As we have already seen, plants under attack emit a variety of volatile chemicals to warn their neighbours, but one called methyl jasmonate is particularly important. This is where taste comes in. Although methyl jasmonate is a gas and so an effective airborne messenger molecule, it is not very active in plants. Instead, when it diffuses in through the stomata – the pores in the surface of the leaf – it gets converted into the water-soluble jasmonic acid. This attaches to a specific receptor in the cells and triggers the leaf’s defence responses. Just as our tongues contain receptors for different taste molecules in food, plants contain receptors for different soluble molecules, including jasmonic acid.

As taste involves soluble chemicals, it is perhaps not surprising that much of a plant’s sense of taste is in its roots, surrounded as they are by soil and water. A classic experiment reveals that plants can use underground chemical messages to recognise their relatives nearby (New Scientist, 26 March 2011, p46). There is also root-to-root communication between unrelated neighbours. When a row of plants was subjected to drought conditions, it took just one hour for the message to travel to plants that were five rows away, causing them to close their stomata in preparation for a lack of water (PLoS One, vol6, pe23625). Other plants that were just as close but not connected by their roots failed to react. So the signal must have been passed from root to root, probably taking the form of a soluble molecule.

HEARING

You have probably heard conflicting stories about the musical preferences of plants. Some people are convinced they flourish when exposed to classical compositions, others believe that heavy metal or bebop does the trick. Strangely, plants’ musical tastes show a remarkable congruence with those of the humans reporting them. Although research in this area has a long history, most of it is not very scientific and, if you think about it, experiments studying music and plants were doomed from the start. We don’t judge a plant’s vision by showing it an eye chart and asking it to read the bottom line. Olfaction is not measured by its ability to differentiate between Chanel No.5 and Old Spice.

Music is not ecologically relevant for plants, so we shouldn’t expect them to be tuned in to it. But there are sounds that, at least theoretically, it could be advantageous for them to hear. These include the vibrations produced by insects, such as a bee’s buzz or an aphid’s wing beat, and minuscule sounds that might be created by even smaller organisms. Plants might even benefit from the ability to detect certain sounds produced by other plants. For example, researchers at the Institute of Plant Sciences in Bern, Switzerland, recently recorded ultrasonic vibrations emanating from pine and oak trees during a drought (New Phytologist, vol179, p1070), perhaps signalling to other trees to prepare for dry conditions.

Stefano Mancuso from the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology at the University of Florence, Italy, and his colleagues are starting to apply rigorous standards to study plant hearing (Trends in Plant Sciences, vol17, p323). Their preliminary results indicate that corn roots grow towards specific frequencies of vibrations. What is even more surprising is their finding that roots themselves may also be emitting sound waves. For now, though, we have no idea how a plant might produce sound signals let alone how they might detect them.

If this research pans out, then we will know that plants have the same five senses as animals. Either way, there can be no doubt that plants are sensually aware organisms in their own right.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Daniel Chamovitz is director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Source: http://themindunleashed.org/2013/11/plants-exhibit-same-senses-as-humans.html
wakingtimes.com

How Plants Help Each Other Grow By Near-Telepathic Communication

on 17 March, 2014 at 22:46

Plants have scientifically been show to draw alternative sources of energy from other plants. Plants influence each other in many ways and they communicate through “nanomechanical oscillations” vibrations on the tiniest atomic or molecular scale or as close as you can get to telepathic communication.

Members of Professor Dr. Olaf Kruse’s biological research team have previously shown that green algae not only engages in photosynthesis, but also has an alternative source of energy: it can draw it from other plants. His research findings were released in the online journal Nature Communications.

Other research published last year, showed that young corn roots made clicking sounds, and that when suspended in water they would lean towards sounds made in the same frequency range (about 220 Hz). So it seemed that plants do emit and react to sound, and the researchers wanted to delve into this idea further.

Working with chili plants in their most recent study, specifically Capsicum annuum, they first grew chili seeds on their own and then in the presence of other chili plants, basil and fennel, and recorded their rates of germination and growth. Fennel is considered an aggressive plant that hinders the germination of other plants around it, while basil is generally considered to be a beneficial plant for gardening and an ideal companion for chili plants.

Germination rates were fairly low when the seeds were grown on their own, lower when grown in the presence of fennel (as expected). Germination rates were better with other chili plants around, and even better with basil.

Since plants are already known to ‘talk’ through chemical signals and to react to light, the researchers separated newly planted seeds from the other plants using black plastic, to block any other kind of ‘signaling’ other than through sound. When fennel was on the other side of the plastic, the chemical effects of its presence, which would have inhibited germination of the chili seeds, were blocked. The chili seeds grew much quicker than normal though, possibly because they still ‘knew’ the fennel was there, ‘knew’ it had the potential to have a negative effect on their germination, and so they quickly got past the stage where they were vulnerable.

If even bacteria can signal one another with vibrations, why not plants, said Monica Gagliano, a plant physiologist at the University of Western Australia in Crawley.

Gagliano imagines that root-to-root alerts could transform a forest into an organic switchboard. “Considering that entire forests are all interconnected by networks of fungi, maybe plants are using fungi the way we use the Internet and sending acoustic signals through this Web. From here, who knows,” she said.

As with other life, if plants do send messages with sound, it is one of many communication tools. More work is needed to bear out Gagliano’s claims, but there are many ways that listening to plants already bears fruit.

According to the study: “This demonstrated that plants were able to sense their neighbours even when all known communication channels are blocked (i.e. light, chemicals and touch) and most importantly, recognize the potential for the interfering presence of a ‘bad neighbour’ and modify their growth accordingly.”

Then, to test if they could see similar effects with a ‘good neighbour’, they tried the same experiment with other chili plants and then with basil. When there were fully-grown chili plants in their presence blocked by the plastic, the seeds showed some improved germination (“partial response”). When basil was on the other side of the plastic, they found that the seeds grew just as well as when the plastic wasn’t there.

“Our results show that plants are able to positively influence growth of seeds by some as yet unknown mechanism,” said Dr. Monica Gagliano, an evolutionary biologist at UWA and co-author of the study, according to BioMed Central. “Bad neighbors, such as fennel, prevent chili seed germination in the same way. We believe that the answer may involve acoustic signals generated using nanomechanical oscillations from inside the cell which allow rapid communication between nearby plants.”

WHAT CAN HUMANS LEARN?

Flowers need water and light to grow and people are no different. Our physical bodies are like sponges, soaking up the environment. “This is exactly why there are certain people who feel uncomfortable in specific group settings where there is a mix of energy and emotions,” said psychologist and energy healer Dr. Olivia Bader-Lee.

“When energy studies become more advanced in the coming years, we will eventually see this translated to human beings as well,“ stated Bader-Lee. “The human organism is very much like a plant, it draws needed energy to feed emotional states and this can essentially energize cells or cause increases in cortisol and catabolize cells depending on the emotional trigger.”

Bader-Lee suggests that the field of bio-energy is now ever evolving and that studies on the plant and animal world will soon translate and demonstrate what energy metaphysicians have known all along — that humans can heal each other simply through energy transfer just as plants do. “Human can absorb and heal through other humans, animals, and any part of nature. That’s why being around nature is often uplifting and energizing for so many people,” she concluded.

Michael Forrester is a spiritual counselor and is a practicing motivational speaker for corporations in Japan, Canada and the United States.

Credits: PreventDisease
http://themindunleashed.org/2014/03/plants-help-grow-near-telepathic-communication.html

A inteligência das plantas revelada

Pesquisas recentes mostram que as plantas têm linguagem, memória, cognição e são capazes de fazer escolhas. Ao site de VEJA, pesquisadores desvendam o mecanismo da inteligência vegetal e mostram como as plantas passaram a dividir com os animais o status de criaturas autônomas e sensíveis

Rita Loiola - Veja.com - 08/03/2014

Em 1880, o naturalista britânico Charles Darwin foi o primeiro a escrever que as extremidades das raízes vegetais "agem como o cérebro de animais inferiores". Desde então, cientistas descobriram que as plantas atuam também como se tivessem linguagem, memória, visão, audição, defesas e cognição. Percebem-se como indivíduos e são capazes de fazer escolhas. Em outras palavras, elas têm o que Darwin previa no último parágrafo de seu livro O Poder do Movimento nas Plantas: inteligência.

As evidências para isso vêm de diversos países ao redor do globo, em instituições de pesquisa como a Universidade da Califórnia e a Universidade de Washington, nos Estados Unidos, o Instituto Max Planck e a Universidade de Bonn, na Alemanha, a Universidade de Lausanne, na Suíça, além de institutos de pesquisa no México, França, Itália e Japão.

Nos últimos meses, diversos estudos, publicados em revistas científicas como Nature, Science ou Plos One têm demonstrando o funcionamento dessas até então desconhecidas habilidades vegetais. E provado que as plantas estão longe de ser criaturas passivas, como se acreditava. Um dos estudos mais recentes, divulgado no fim do ano passado na revista Ecology Letters, mostrou como as plantas se comunicam por meio de compostos voláteis. Viajando pelo ar, eles avisam outras árvores sobre a presença de herbívoros potencialmente perigosos — as folhas recebem a mensagem e tornam-se mais resistentes às pragas.

"As plantas são capazes de comportamentos muitíssimo mais sofisticados do que imaginávamos", afirma o biólogo Rick Karban, da Universidade da Califórnia, nos Estados Unidos, e principal autor do estudo sobre comunicação vegetal. "Elas passaram por uma seleção em que tiveram de lidar com os mesmos desafios que os animais e desenvolveram soluções que, às vezes, guardam semelhanças com as deles." É o avanço dos estudos em biologia e fisiologia vegetal, aliado a tecnologias mais potentes para conduzir experimentos e recolher dados, que está fazendo com que os cientistas percebam que árvores e arbustos são criaturas sensíveis, que dividem o mesmo espaço com os animais na escala evolutiva.

História

A LÍNGUA DAS PLANTAS

Quem está mostrando as evidências mais contundentes de uma cara característica animal — a linguagem — nos vegetais são pequenas artemísias. Há mais de uma década, Karban cuida do cultivo de quase cem delas em um campo aberto na Califórnia. Regularmente, suas folhas ganham pequenos cortes que imitam dentadas de insetos para que emitam os compostos orgânicos voláteis, conhecidos pela sigla VOC. O objetivo é entender o papel desses elementos perfumados na natureza, que parecem enviar mensagens muito precisas de uma planta para outra.

Com seu campo californiano, Karban não só provou que esses compostos existem, como percebeu que eles viajam a até 60 centímetros de distância e são percebidos por outros ramos da planta, por pés vizinhos da mesma espécie e, por vezes, por outras espécies que estão ao lado. "As plantas coordenam suas defesas e as de seus parentes", afirma Karban, que estuda o tema há mais de trinta anos. "Esse e outros trabalhos indicam que a comunicação entre os vegetais é um fenômeno real que ocorre na natureza."

Pelas contas do pesquisador, outros 48 estudos de comunicação vegetal confirmam que as plantas detectam esses sinais aéreos. E dominam mais de uma língua: algumas conseguem também enviar mensagens para predadores de herbívoros que, atraídos pelos compostos emitidos, evitam que as folhas sejam comidas. "Plantas reconhecem os herbívoros que as atacam, às vezes até antes que eles cheguem", diz o pesquisador. "Descobrir essa linguagem das plantas, além de ser muito interessante, pode nos mostrar como manipular a defesa de safras inteiras."

SINAPSES VEGETAIS
Afora as mensagens voláteis, as plantas emitem sinais elétricos — semelhantes a sinapses dos neurônios — para enviar informações entre uma célula e outra. Edward Farmer, o biólogo pioneiro em pesquisas sobre comunicação vegetal da Universidade de Lausanne, na Suíça, descobriu, há alguns meses, uma maneira até então inédita de transmissão de sinais elétricos vegetais, com pulsos que seguem por longas distâncias entre as membranas da planta. É como um rudimento das sinapses animais.

por que abraçar as arvores?

Abrazar árboles para sanarnos

 Tanto las flores como los árboles tienen una radiación energética compatible con la de las personas. Esto quiere decir que podemos usar esa energía que las plantas nos brindan para energetizar nuestro propio sistema energético, el cual está formado por el campo áurico y los chakras principales y secundarios.

 Nuestros antepasados buscaban un árbol para abrazarse a su tronco, cuando se sentían angustiados o cargados de problemas. Por el tronco fluye la savia que da energía directamente de la tierra.

  En las técnicas orientales, como el chi-kung, hay una postura que se llama "abrazar el árbol". Esta posición estática alinea todos los huesos del modo más eficaz posible.

 Para los occidentales puede parecer algo ridículo, sin embargo, cada vez más naturópatas lo recomiendan.

 Es una forma gratuita de sentirse en comunión con la naturaleza.Cuando caminamos entre los árboles en un parque o un bosque, podemos llegar a sentir la energía que desprenden. Los celtas creían que cada árbol poseía un espíritu sabio y que sus rostros podían verse en la corteza de sus troncos y sus voces escucharse en el sonido de las hojas moviéndose con el viento.

  Los árboles nos ayudan a establecer contacto con el poder de la naturaleza, nos dan herramientas para sanarnos, relajarnos, fortalecernos, cargarnos de energía vital y son portadores de los mensajes de la madre Tierra.

  Existen cada vez más personas que han comprobado los beneficios de abrazar los árboles. Al revés que con las personas que al abrazarlas podemos notar pérdidas de energía debido a factores emocionales, con un árbol siempre notaremos que nos carga, nunca que nos descarga.

 No olvidemos que todo ser vivo es energía, y al igual que nosotros, los árboles tienen la suya propia, muchas veces entramos en sintonía y sentimos como fluye expresando nuestra sensación de bienestar, tranquilidad, serenidad, etc. Desde aquí queremos compartir la energía que te aporta cada árbol en concreto, porque cada uno tiene una característica, determinada por su especie, velocidad de crecimiento, entorno.

 

 ¿CÓMO CAPTAR LA ENERGÍA DE LOS ÁRBOLES?

La energía que emanan los árboles, al igual que la nuestra, es invisible al ojo físico, es lo que llamamos el aura, muy perceptible sensitivamente.

  El árbol al igual que las personas está emitiendo vibraciones energéticas constantemente y son perfectamente asimilables por el ser humano, se pueden absorber y podemos beneficiarnos de sus efectos.

 Existen dos formas fundamentales de captarla:

  A TRAVÉS DE LA ENERGÍA DEL ÁRBOL:

 Su extensión es más o menos grande según las características de cada árbol y su situación ambiental. Bastará penetrar en su radio de acción. Este tipo de energía se absorbe con el simple hecho de pasear por un bosque, conscientemente podemos aumentar su captación regulando nuestra respiración a un ritmo tranquilo y algo profundo.

 

  En la práctica, esto lo podemos hacer:

1. Camina entre los árboles y escoge alguno que te llame la atención.
2.   Acércate a él, obsérvalo y capta su energía, no trates de analizarlo mentalmente o de establecer un vínculo emocional. Sólo nota su tono vibratorio.
3.  Tócalo al mismo tiempo que cierras los ojos, con tu mano izquierda. Reconoce su fuerza y su influencia en el entorno. Observa si es un árbol solitario o un pastor de árboles que tiene influencia sobre el colectivo. Capta si su energía es curativa, o si es protectora y amorosa, o si es sabia, o si es imponente en todo ese territorio o de cualquier otro tipo. Acepta esa energía sin más y pregúntate si deseas recargarte a ti mismo con esa fuerza.
4. Establece contacto con la energía del árbol mediante tu corazón energético. Vacía tu ruido interno, fluye en el amor y escucha al árbol. Capta su espíritu. Preséntate con tu nombre y entra en un espacio donde la comunicación es energética y no sonora. Puedes pedir consejo sobre cualquier situación que necesites, cargarte de energía, relajarte o aceptar su sabiduría.
5.  Escucha la en tu corazón, da las gracias, levántate y despídete poniendo tu mano derecha sobre su tronco.

  EN CONTACTO DIRECTO CON EL ÁRBOL:

 

 Utilizando las manos:

  A través de ellas podemos realizar una captación más consciente, son una zona muy sensible a la emisión y captación vibratoria ya que en la palma existen varios puntos de entrada y salida de energía. La posición más conveniente es la de seguir las grietas o fisuras de la corteza en el sentido que las presenta el árbol.

  Utilizando la espalda:

 La parte central de la espalda, recorriendo la columna vertebral, se encuentra el canal energético principal del cuerpo. Apoyando esta zona en el tronco del árbol absorberemos la energía que emana.

Fontes:

 

de García Azañedo.

DEBO ACLARAR QUE ESTO SOLO RESULTA SI HACEMOS UN INTERCAMBIO AMOROSO, DE AMOR, SI SOLO QUEREMOS APROVECHARNOS DE SU ENERGIA,EN SANARNOS, SI SOLO PENSAMOS EN SU USUFRUCTO, EL CONTACTO NO SE REALIZARA.

 SAIKU.

Do trees communicate?

Uma interessante pesquisa da Dra. Suzzane Simard, PH d

Sua pesquisa constata que as arvore/plantas se comunicam entre si , com ajuda de fungos, no subsolo e que sempre há uma que é a "mãe"  de todas.

Mas houveram varias opiniões controvérsias. Vale a pena conferir e pensar.
Eliane Sena

===============================================================

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8V0IJ11CoE&feature=player_embedded

Excerpt from UBC Reports | Vol. 57 | No. 7
UBC Foresty Professor Suzanne Simard is a forest ecologist whose research focuses on how organisms living in soil – like fungi – help trees establish and grow. Some fungi live inside the roots of trees and form mycorrhizas (literally “fungus-roots”). These fungi help trees acquire nutrients and water from the soil in exchange for carbon.

In 1997, Simard was part of a team of researchers that discovered that trees were connected to one another through an underground web of mycorrhizal fungi. This network allows trees to communicate by transferring carbon, nutrients and water to one another.

Simard also helped identify something called a hub tree, or “Mother Tree.” Mother trees are the largest trees in forests that act as central hubs for vast below ground mycorrhizal networks. They support young trees or seedlings by infecting them with fungi and ferrying them the nutrients they need to grow.

Voce ainda poderá acessar:

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/jf11/fungal_systems.asp
http://abject.ca/do-trees-communicate/

árvores

Minhas arvores queridas

Amanhã é comemorado o "dia da arvore" , 

apesar de eu comemora-lo todos os dias... 

Minhas arvores queridas, simbolo da vida, do amor e da paz. 

Nelas encontramos tantos mini-eco-sistemas, a nutrição da terra, a proteção do solo, o equilíbrio do ar/temperatura, o controle da chuva, a dadiva das flores, dos frutos, da sombra... há tanto o que falar....... 

Amo estes seres. 

Adoro abraça-las, sentir o cheiro, o abrigo da sombra.... 

          Elas transmitem o trabalho incessante de revigorar a terra sem alarde.

Suas raízes profundas nos mostram que a força de sustentação é ir 

cada vez mais fundo em nossa verdade...

É abrigar / acolher sem olhar a quem ou quando. 

Faz isso com tanta maestria promovendo o continuo ritmo da vida de pássaros, insetos, macacos, coalas, cobras, felinos, ...

nossa.... nem me lembro de tudo.. 

É expandir seus galhos, para os lados e avançar a copa ao céu , rumo ao infinito.. 

Individualmente fazem milagres e em conjunto então tudo é + perfeito.

Minha eterna gratidão a mãe Gaia.

Eliane Sena

21 de setembro - dia da arvore

No dia 21 de setembro comemora-se o dia da árvore. Essa data foi escolhida em razão da chegada da primavera. Mas antes da escolha dessa data, acontecia no país, na última semana de março, a festa Anual das Árvores, instituída pelo presidente Castelo Branco, em 1965.

Mais adiante, a árvore ganhou um dia especial em virtude de sua importância para a vida humana e também com a chegada da primavera, onde ganham nova vida e abrem lindas flores que dão origem a novas árvores.

Com a chegada da primavera podemos ver as cidades mais alegres, pois essas se enchem de flores de todas as cores.

Muitos pensam que a árvore que simboliza o Brasil é o pau-brasil, em razão do nome, mas esse título cabe ao ipê-amarelo, uma das cores que representam o nosso país. O pau-brasil encontra-se em extinção, pois foi muito contrabandeado por ser uma madeira de cor avermelhada e de aparência nobre. Além dessa, o jacarandá, o mogno e o pinheiro também se encontram nas mesmas condições de extinção.

As árvores são plantas que possuem um caule lenhoso e são constituídas por raiz, caule, folha, flor, fruto e sementes. São elas que nos fornecem o ar que respiramos, além das frutas e outros tipos de alimentos; a madeira para construção de móveis, casas, objetos decorativos, cercas; também fornecem remédios; e a celulose, matéria-prima para a fabricação de papel.

Em face das necessidades dos homens em construir novas moradias e melhorar suas condições de vida, as árvores acabaram sendo alvo de destruição, pois grandes áreas foram desmatadas para a construção das cidades.

O contrabando de madeiras também fez com que grandes áreas fossem destruídas, principalmente na floresta amazônica, onde o acesso a outros países é mais fácil e próximo. Os prejuízos seriam menores se fossem plantadas novas árvores nos lugares das devastações, mas o tempo que levam para crescer é muito grande.

O homem precisa ter consciência de que as plantas também são seres vivos e que levam tempo para se desenvolverem. Uma árvore leva longos anos para ficar bem desenvolvida e algumas são tão velhas que são tombadas como patrimônio histórico, devendo ser preservadas.

Por Jussara de Barros
Graduada em Pedagogia

5 de setembro: Dia da Amazônia

Com sete milhões de quilômetros quadrados, sendo cinco milhões e meio de florestas, a Amazônia é hoje um dos patrimônios naturais mais valiosos de toda a humanidade.

Este domínio biogeográfico ocupa 60% do território brasileiro e possui uma área que abrange oito países e um território da América do Sul (Brasil, Peru, Colômbia, Equador, Bovialí, Guiana, Suriname, Venezuela e Guiana Francesa). Estima-se que no Brasil 30 milhões de pessoas vivem na Amazônia.

Embora tenha uma importância ambiental incalculável para o planeta – como lar de uma infinidade de espécies animais, vegetais e arbóreas conhecidas e desconhecidas; como regulador no equilíbrio climático global; e como fonte de matérias primas alimentares, florestais, medicinais e minerais -, a Amazônia é ameaçada por inúmeras atividades predatórias, como a extração de madeira, a mineração, obras de infra-estrutura e a conversão da floresta em áreas para pasto e agricultura.

Neste 5 de setembro, data em que se comemora o Dia Mundial da Amazônia, o WWF-Brasil apresenta a você uma série de materiais cujo objetivo é mostrar a importância de conciliar a conservação dos recursos naturais com o desenvolvimento sustentável da região.

fonte: http://www.wwf.org.br/natureza_brasileira/areas_prioritarias/amazonia1/dia_da_amazonia/

Porque Plantar?

Título : Porque Plantar? Canal : Educação Ambiental Autor : Companhia Ecológica Fonte : Cia Eco

Porque Plantar? Árvore, uma verdadeira maquina complexa e silenciosa. Cada ser vivo tem seu lugar na natureza e realiza muitas tarefas. As árvores são muito importantes tanto para nossas vidas como para o equilíbrio da natureza. Diariamente, uma árvore com 10 metros de altura absorve cerca de 250 litros de nutrientes que estão dissolvidos no solo, transportando-os até o mais alto de suas folhas, as folhas por sua vez, absorvem o gás carbônico (Co2), matéria bruta para a transformação dos sais minerais em carboidratos, e a luz do sol, da qual todo o sistema da árvore depende para se desenvolver, este processo chama-se Fotossíntese: foto=luz, e síntese=colocar junto. Durante este processo a uma árvore de porte médio, libera aproximadamente 2 metros cúbicos de oxigênio puro. As raízes são os órgãos de alimentação, fixação e sustentação. Todas as plantas funcionam como fabricas de matéria orgânica e produzem alimento para quase todos os animais sob a forma de raízes, folhas, flores, frutos e sementes. Calculou-se na Europa, que uma árvore de porte médio transpira o equivalente a 60 litros d’água por dia, a unidade escapa pela folhas na forma de vapor d’água e fica espalhada no ar, sendo que este vapor se mistura com as partículas de poeiras que flutuam no ar ficando cada vez mais pesadas devido ao acumulo e caem ao chão, as árvores são eficientes removedoras de poeiras nas ruas. Uma pesquisa feita na Alemanha demonstrou que o teor de partículas de poeira em ruas arborizadas é de apenas 25% em relação às não arborizadas. As grandes quantidades de vapor de água liberadas pelas árvores ajudam a controlar o clima da região. Por isto, as árvores podem refrescar muito uma rua, um bairro, uma cidade e uma nação. Uma árvore de porte médio tem o mesmo poder de resfriamento de (4)quatro maquinas de ar condicionado. Assim como ocorre com as ondas de calor, também as ondas sonoras têm sua energia freada, quando se chocam com a barreira das árvores, ao bater nas folhas o som é em parte absorvido, e parte desviado de seu curso, tornando-se menos intenso ou sendo inteiramente eliminado. Não poderíamos deixar de mencionar outras importantes funções das árvores no meio ambiente como: Sua madeira que serve para fabricação celulose, papel, madeiras para móveis e madeiras para construção, de suas folhas e raizes extrai-se óleos medicinais para fabricação de remédios. Sua beleza, uma árvore é sempre bonita, o verde de suas folhas nos acalma, como é bom encontrar uma árvore quando o dia está muito quente e sol forte. A copa das árvores quebra o impacto das gotas de chuvas e ao mesmo tempo, o solo fica coberto por uma camada de folhas e galhos secos que caem das árvores formando uma excelente adubo orgânico, sendo esta camada que se forma por cima do solo funciona como uma esponja que absorve a água que cai de mansinho por entre a folhagem das copas. Esta água pode penetrar devagar na terra e alimentar as águas dos lençóis freáticos; Na beira dos rios, para protege-los são as chamadas matas ciliares (o nome refere-se aos cílios, que protegem os nossos olhos), são as matas ciliares que ficam nas margens dos rios, sem elas a vida do rio corre perigo, essas matas afofam o solo da beira dos rios, funcionando como uma esponja, alimentando os lençóis de água que por sua vez alimenta o rio através de suas nascentes, suas raízes evitam a erosão, pois retêm as partículas do solo (terra) e outros matérias que iriam parar nos leitos dos rios, diminuindo o oxigênio da água e os alimentos dos peixes. Ao plantarmos uma árvore, estaremos efetuando o “Seqüestro Legal de Carbono”, sendo as árvores o cativeiro do Co2, pois para a árvore se desenvolver ela necessita do Co2, o qual ela seqüestra do ar no processo de fotossíntese e ainda libera oxigênio puro, mas preste bem atenção à árvore passa a ser o cativeiro, se for cortada ou queimada o Co2 será novamente liberado do cativeiro. Estes são alguns dos motivos que no Projeto Plantar RECICLAFRUTA da Cia Eco serão plantadas muitas árvores nativas frutíferas. As árvores frutíferas têm um papel importante na alimentação de aves, insetos e morcegos que são agentes de polinização das flores e de dispersão das sementes de árvores nativas, ajudando a propagar as espécies vegetais num raio de muitos quilômetros e não são destinadas para o corte, e ainda serve de moradia para vários animais. Se não for contido o Desmatamento, em apenas vinte e cinco anos, mais de 50.000 (cinqüenta mil) espécies de plantas estarão Extintas. Cerca de 1,5 Km2 de floresta tropical é destruída a cada 6 minutos, neste ritmo, toda a floresta tropical restante estará destruída até o ano 2035. Atualmente existe apenas uma árvore para cada 500 habitantes em nosso planeta. Façamos como os índios da Indonésia da tribo Mandelings, jamais aceitaram a responsabilidade de abater uma árvore; No Brasil os índios acreditam em seres sobrenaturais, como o Curupira e o Caapora, que perseguem e castigam quem destrói as árvores. As árvores são seres vivos que nascem, crescem, se reproduzem e morrem! Respeitar a Natureza é respeitar a vida!

Of Forests and Men [US - Edward Norton]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSaAlPRN-c

Yann Arthus-Bertrand was appointed by the United Nations to produce the official film for the International Year of Forests. 
Following the success of Home which was seen by 400 million people, the photographer began producing a short 7-minute film on forests made up of aerial images from Home and the Vu du Ciel television programmes.
This film will be shown during a plenary session of the Ninth Session of United Nations Forum on Forests (24 January - 4 February 2011) in New York. It will be available to all from February 2 -- for free -- so that it can be shown worldwide.

With the voice of EDWARD NORTON.

www.goodplanet.org/forets

Arvores de São Paulo

http://arvoresdesaopaulo.wordpress.com/tag/arvores-urbanas/

Excelente site referente as nossas queridas arvores!!!!
confira!!!!

Os Amigos das Árvores de São Paulo é uma ação do Ambientalista Ricardo Cardim, e  tem como objetivo conectar as pessoas sobre a importância do verde urbano para a qualidade de vida e resgatar a biodiversidade nativa da cidade de São Paulo.

Aqui estão alguns dos motivos para você plantar não uma, mas várias árvores, e ajudar a natureza!

Uma árvore adulta pode absorver do solo até 250 litros de água por dia. Imagine como elas poderiam ajudar para não ocorrerem tantas enchentes, das quais matam e deixam muitas pessoas sem casas! Junto com toda essa água absorvida, muitos nutrientes de matérias orgânicas (como as fezes dos animais) são absorvidos pelas raízes e transformados através da fotossíntese, em alimento para a toda a planta. Por sua vez, folhas, frutos, madeira e raízes servirão de alimento para diversos seres vivos. Os animais por sua vez, irão defecar o que comeram, e as folhas e frutos que não serviram de alimento caem no solo.

Folhas, frutos e fezes de volta ao solo, e todo o ciclo recomeça.

A camada de folhas que se formam a baixo das árvores, servem de berço para as sementes, e para proteger o solo dos pingos da chuva. Cada pingo de chuva que cai diretamente no solo, causa erosão. A erosão do solo pode ser prejudicial em vários casos:

Em rios: A erosão leva terra e areia para o leito (fundo) do rio, fazendo com que o rio fique mais raso, com menor capacidade de guardar água, causando a falta de água nos meses de pouca chuva, além da morte dos peixes.

Para o Solo: A erosão leva embora as sementes que poderiam germinar e recompor a vegetação natural. Ou seja, solo desprotegido tende a continuar desprotegido.

Para os animais: A erosão pode levar embora ninhos de animais que os fazem no chão, e tampar os de diversos outros animais, matando os filhotes que estão dentro. Além do mais, sem vegetação e frutos para alimenta-los, eles vão embora ou morrem de fome.

Para os lençóis freáticos: Os solos sem vegetação, por não terem raízes e minhocas para deixa-lo fofo, não tem uma boa absorção de água. Além do mais, como não há barreiras para a água, ela vai embora rapidamente, não dando tempo para a água da chuva penetrar no solo. Com isso os lençóis freáticos secam, acabando assim com muitos rios e conseqüentemente com nossa água potável.

A copa das árvores também protege o solo da chuva direta, sem contar que suas raízes seguram firmemente o solo. As raízes de árvores que estão nas beira de rios, aparecem as vezes dentro do rio, parecendo cílios. Essas raízes além evitarem a erosão, servem de casa para muitos animais. Por causa destes cílios, a mata próxima aos rios é conhecida pelo nome de Mata Ciliar.

Uma árvore pode transpirar por suas folhas, até 60 litros de água por dia. Este vapor se mistura com as partículas de poluição do ar, e quando se acumulam em nuvens, caem em forma de chuva. Portanto, as árvores ajudam também na retirada de poluentes do ar! Além do mais, este vapor ajuda a equilibrar o clima da região. Isso é facilmente percebido em parques e floretas que tem seu clima mais fresco.

Outro ponto que podemos notar até mesmo em parques no meio de grandes cidades, é o silêncio! As árvores formam uma parede que impede a propagação dos ruídos. Cercas vivas estão sendo muito utilizadas hoje em dia para criar ambientes mais silenciosos e aconchegantes (além de bonitos).

Se ainda assim, você ainda não se convenceu de que deve plantar árvores

espere para saber mais...

Sombra: ah que delícia uma boa sombra ! Não é ? Bem, se levarmos em conta a devastação e a não preocupação do reflorestamento, pode se preparar para sair de casa de guarda sol, pois a previsão é de que em 2030 nossas matas vão acabar !

Madeira: Se você não tem nada de madeira na sua casa pode enviar seu nome para colocarmos no livro dos recordes. O mercado madereiro é um dos que mais cresce no Brasil. Muitas empresas são clandestinas, e pouca gente se preocupou em saber se a madeira que está comprando é autorizada ou não. Se você usa madeira, por que não ajudar plantando ?

Papel: Não sei se você sabe, mas não há no mundo país que tenha um substituto para o papel vindo da madeira de árvores, sendo produzido em larga escala ! Preocupante ? Então imagine quantas árvores você já usou e vai usar só com papel !

Oxigênio: Você respira ? Bem, pode não conseguir mais daqui alguns anos. A poluição gerada pelas grande cidades estão desequilibrando a quantidade de oxigênio no mundo ! E uma novidade: Estudiosos afirmam que florestas muito antigas, que já atingiram seu equilíbrio, produzem a mesma quantidade de gás carbônico (liberado a noite) que a de oxigênio. E que florestas jovens, para poder crescer, liberam muito mais oxigênio do que gás carbônico. Isso significa que plantar uma árvore é produzir oxigênio !

Frutas: Quem não gosta de uma boa fruta ? Mas não pense que elas são produzidas em laboratório. Elas chegam à sua mesa, pois árvores às produziram. E se você fizer as contas deve ter gasto com frutas o bastante para ter mais de 100 pés de cada fruta que você gosta. Mesmo porque o gasto em se ter uma árvore é quase zero.

Fauna: Que delícia ouvir o canto dos pássaros logo de manhã ! Pois então ! Plante uma árvore perto de sua casa e ouça o resultado! Se você estiver em zona rural, ou próximo à alguma floresta, ainda poderá receber a visita de diversos animais da fauna brasileira.

Quantas folhas de papel dá pra fazer com uma árvore?

Um eucalipto rende de 20 a 24 mil folhas de papel A4 (75 g/m2 de gramatura), aquele comum, usado em casa e nos escritórios. Como são necessárias 11 árvores para produzir uma tonelada de papel, e o consumo do brasileiro é de 44 kg por ano, cada um de nós consome em média meia árvore por ano. Podia ser pior. Os finlandeses, primeiros no ranking, consomem 341 Kg.

fonte: http://revistagalileu.globo.com