Another garden specimen is the White Pine, everywhere to be seen in southern Ontario, the emblem of the province. This apparently unassuming member of the arboreal community, however, has been recently unmasked as among the wiliest species on the forest floor. Notwithstanding the graceful and towering altitudes of a mature specimen, the story underground is far more dire. The Globe and Mail reported recently that strobus is in fact a sly, sub-surface predator, teaming up with a common fungus (Laccaria bicolour) which finds the roots of strobus particularly succulent.
Just as with us humans, there is always one tree that prefers its own company. Among the forest community the standoffish individual in question is the Juglans nigra, long known as a source of edible nuts and tannin dye. Like its neighbour mentioned above, the Black Walnut is an equally cunning competitor on the forest floor: its root system secretes the juglone toxin, a chemical compound which effectively kills off encroaching surface florae. This not only gives the tree an expansive area in which to grow, but also an interesting profile for botanists to explore. Most importantly, perhaps (at least from the tree's perspective) the neighbours never get too close. We currently have one in the western field. All by itself.