Silvics
the scientific study of trees and their environment.
I was thrilled to paint trees for this, because who doesn’t love trees? I wanted to incorporate the science of tree communication for this painting, so I created a network grid of 5 “mother” trees based on a diagram of how trees actually communicate. The basic gist is that fungal networks connect trees in a forest, share nutrients, warn the rest of the trees to put up defenses when one is being attacked by insects, etc. It’s a fascinating field of study.
The grid represents the fungal network, and the white sketch overlay on the trees is my idea of a tree skeleton. The conduits that take up nutrients from the network below.
You can read this article for more information, and see the diagram I was referencing: Exploring How and Why Trees ‘Talk’ to Each Other. There have been quite a few books that have come out about the intelligence of plants over the last several years, which is an incredibly exciting field of study.
