For a few weeks we really believed it. The idea was fascinating: trees “talking” to each other before an eclipse, warning each other, preparing, perhaps protecting each other. A forest that reacts like a single, aware organism.
Then a new study arrived to dampen the enthusiasm. And no, there’s no conspiracy involved: it’s science.
The fir trees had actually changed their behavior before the eclipse
It all starts from the Paneveggio – Pale di San Martino Natural Park, in Val di Fiemme. Last summer, as part of the CyberForest Experimentan Italian team had recorded an increase in bioelectrical activity in spruce trees shortly before a total eclipse.
The detail that sparked the imagination? The first to “move” were the older trees. According to the authors of the study, they could have been the ones “guiding” the younger ones, as if they had memories of similar events they had already experienced.
A powerful hypothesis, which fits into the – now increasingly studied – trend of communication between plants. Because yes, plants really communicate. They exchange nutrients through fungi, send chemical signals, react to environmental stress. But it’s a long step from here to talking about telepathy.
The new study: no telepathy, maybe it was just a thunderstorm
To restore order was a group of researchers from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, who published a critical analysis in the scientific journal Trends in Plant Science. The tone is clear: talking about telepathic communication between trees means bordering on pseudoscience.
The scholars start from an objective fact: bioelectric activity had really increased. But not necessarily because of the eclipse. The astronomical event had caused a decrease in brightness of 10.5%, distributed over about two hours. Ergo, a lower impact than that of a normal cloud covering the sun. Can such a slight change really put an entire forest on alert?
According to Israeli researchers, there is another, much more plausible explanation. Shortly after the changes recorded in the trees, the area was hit by a lightning storm. An intense, dangerous meteorological event, capable of generating electric fields and atmospheric variations that can be perceived in advance by living organisms.
Plants are not passive. They know how to read signals from the environment and activate an “alert mode” in the face of real and predictable stress. But they have to be real stresses, not a slight dimming of the light.
There is also another sobering point. The gravitational changes linked to eclipses – evoked in the Italian study – are similar to those that occur at every new moon. If they really were a useful signal to “predict” an eclipse, the trees should react the same way every month. And this simply doesn’t happen.
Smart woods, yes. Magical, no.
Dismantling the telepathy hypothesis does not mean diminishing the intelligence of plants. On the contrary. Forests are complex, interconnected systems, capable of reacting with extraordinary sensitivity to environmental changes. But precisely because nature is already incredible as it is, we don’t need to attribute paranormal powers to it to make it fascinating.
The story of trees “talking” before an eclipse reminds us of an important thing: when an outcome seems extraordinary, it’s always worth asking whether there is a simpler explanation. Often there is. And it’s no less interesting.
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