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Advocating an Unusual Role for Trees
from the New York Times (Registration Required)
Merrickville, Ontario—Diana Beresford-Kroeger pointed to a towering wafer ash tree near her home. The tree is a chemical factory, she explained, and its products are part of a sophisticated survival strategy.
The flowers contain terpene oils, which repel mammals that might feed on them. But the ash needs to attract pollinators, and so it has a powerful lactone fragrance that appeals to large butterflies and honeybees. The chemicals in the wafer ash, in turn, she said, provide chemical protection for the butterflies from birds, making them taste bitter.
Many similar unseen chemical relationships are going on in the world around us. “These are at the heart of connectivity in nature,” she said. Ms. Beresford-Kroeger, 63, ... calls herself a renegade scientist ... because she tries to bring together aboriginal healing, Western medicine and botany to advocate an unusual role for trees.
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