Our Magic Forests (1/3)
THE LANGUAGE OF THE TREES
Germans love their forests. No other European country is bound so deeply to the homeland of trees. One third of our country is covered with woods - 90 billion trees at large. No other natural environment is so deeply linked to our identity. Trees belong to the biggest and oldest organisms on the planet. Our Magic Forests takes the viewer along into this marvel of evolution and narrates astonishing stories of the realm of trees.
Even though they stay put their entire life, trees are no solitary and silent beings. They have friends and business partners, relatives and enemies - and are linked to all of them. Below ground each tree root takes up about twice as much space as its crown in airy heights. And in just one teaspoon of forest soil, miles long fungi networks can be located - as tiny pipes that connect whole forests like the internet connects our computers. Nearly all trees in the forest cooperate with one or more fungi-friends. The underground network even helps the trees to provide their offspring, away in the shade, with essential nutrients. Through the “wood wide web“ of fungi, the forest practically becomes a gigantic organism. In here trees trade nutrients - and information. Chemical messages, through whose help the trees communicate or fend off enemies, also float in the woodland air. Like invisible communication-banners they pervade the woods. The air is furthermore nourished with oxygen, a waste product of the photosynthesis. One tree alone covers the daily requirement of ten humans. Therefore “Forestbathing“ has long been used as therapy - not only in Japan, where it was first invented. Beneath trees we wind down and become more healthy. Because even though we don’t understand them, the secret language of trees, also works on us. And maybe that´s why we love our forests so much.
Even though they stay put their entire life, trees are no solitary and silent beings. They have friends and business partners, relatives and enemies - and are linked to all of them. Below ground each tree root takes up about twice as much space as its crown in airy heights. And in just one teaspoon of forest soil, miles long fungi networks can be located - as tiny pipes that connect whole forests like the internet connects our computers. Nearly all trees in the forest cooperate with one or more fungi-friends. The underground network even helps the trees to provide their offspring, away in the shade, with essential nutrients. Through the “wood wide web“ of fungi, the forest practically becomes a gigantic organism. In here trees trade nutrients - and information. Chemical messages, through whose help the trees communicate or fend off enemies, also float in the woodland air. Like invisible communication-banners they pervade the woods. The air is furthermore nourished with oxygen, a waste product of the photosynthesis. One tree alone covers the daily requirement of ten humans. Therefore “Forestbathing“ has long been used as therapy - not only in Japan, where it was first invented. Beneath trees we wind down and become more healthy. Because even though we don’t understand them, the secret language of trees, also works on us. And maybe that´s why we love our forests so much.
Facts
First aired 28th May 2017, 7:30 pm, on ZDF
90-minutes-special on ARTE
18th January 2020, 8:15 pm, on ARTE
With a wide range of topics—from “The European Saga” to “Our Forests” to “Lights of the Deep Sea”—and impressive images, the “Terra X” documentary series attracted more viewers in 2017 than the previous year: an average of 3.91 million viewers (13.3 percent market share) tuned in.
The series Our Forests is available online on DVD or Blu-ray.
Credits
Written, directed, and produced by: Petra Höfer and Freddie Röckenhaus
Producers: Francesca D’Amicis, Susanne Rostosky, Kay Schlasse, Friederike Schmidt-Vogt
Director of photography: Tobias Kaufmann
Helicopter camera: Peter Thompson, Klaus Stuhl
Animations: David Cornfield, Liz Elkington, Lauri Gibbs, Libby Redden, 422 South
Line producers: Svenja Mandel, Christine Marzi
Narrator: Dietmar Wunder
Editors: Johannes Geiger, Friederike Haedecke, Katharina Kohl (ZDF)
A colourFIELD production commissioned by ZDF
