I share your affection for trees--plants have much more interesting and complicated lives than the vast majority of humans will ever imagine. But I would caution your readers that if we romanticize them--and it is easy to see them as gentle giants, here to give us food, shelter and shade--we will miss much of their amazing story. It is a story that is just coming to light in contemporary times as we learn how they communicate, compete with other flora and fauna for precious resources and, in general, struggle for survival in a world that is rapidly changing--largely due to our own greed.

They can be a source of both pleasure and sustenance. But they are also equipped for war, producing a broad array of toxic chemicals specifically for the purpose of repelling or killing both predators and competitors. The story of strangler figs, which are fostered for years, often decades, by other tree species before they slowly and methodically murder the 'foster mother,' hits most of the themes found in a good horror movie.

And the black walnut tree is the very definition of a 'shady character' ... it produces copious amounts of a poison that is lethal to many other plants. Even if you remove a walnut tree, the soil surrounding it will remain contaminated for up to a year or more.

The life of a tree proceeds at a pace infinitely slower than our own, with some trees living more than a thousand years. As a result, our impression is often that they are unmoving, unintelligent and unaware. Whether they are intelligent or not, I suppose, depends on one's definition of intelligence--but there is no question that their adaptation to their environment is amazing. Rather than compete for resources with conspecifics, some will self-graft, becoming a single, more efficient consumer. And one species--the 'walking palm'--is even able to move itself to a sunnier spot (extremely slowly of course)!

A great post--thanks for sharing your love and knowledge of the arboreal world!