“Why are the plants so sweet under the birches, Auntie Suzie?” she asked. Their roots and fungi draw water from deep in the soil, I told her, and with it bring calcium, magnesium, and other minerals, and this feeds the leaves so they can make sugars. The birches, with their cables of fungi, knit the other trees and plants together, and through their web share the nutritious soup drawn from the soil and also the sugars and proteins made by their leaves. “In the fall, when the birch leaves drop, they nourish the soil in return,” I said. Mary
