I NEVER SAW A PURPLE TREE

Blog number 361 **** 13 January 2009

I'm reading a book called, "The Hidden Life Of Deer" written by the same author who wrote about those Bushmen and the poisoned arrows I wrote about a few entries back. The author started feeding the deer in the winter because there was a very poor acorn crop that year, and acorns are what deer feed upon in winter.

She tells of a "knowledgeable friend" of hers that told her that "nut trees do this [limit their production] from time to time in order to cut down on their predators. The trees do this because if they didn't, their predators would increase to such an extent that they would eventually eat every nut that fell and Viola' ! No more nut trees.

To handle that problem, the trees hold back and let the animals starve.

What caught my eye about this was not that trees can think and plan, but rather the way in which she simply states what she heard as a fact. Or a probable theory, anyway. That's a very unusual outlook in a Westerner, even though all the available evidence makes it obvious that not only are trees conscious of their existence, but so too are rocks and atoms.

People like this gladden my heart.