CfP Variations 28 – Environment, Science, Memory
Call for Papers: Variations 28 – Environment, Science, Memory
The balsam fir tree also remembers. If caterpillars or moose browse its needles, the nibbling assault lodges itself in the chemical makeup of the tree, in a manner analogous to the changes in a chickadee’s nerve cells after a near miss with a predator. The tree’s subsequent growth is more heavily defended by unpalatable resins, like a bird turned jumpy by its bad experience with a hawk. The fir also remembers air temperatures dating back nearly a year, a memory that helps the tree to know when to winterize its cells. […]
Roots and twigs have memories of light, gravity, heat, and minerals. (Haskell 2017: 37)