And in the last two to three summers, these invasive organisms, this kind of Ebola of the trees, as it were, has swept through the primeval Hemlock forest of the east, and has absolutely wiped it out. I climbed there this past summer.

We have now discovered that there is a multi directional transfer of nutrients between plants, mitigated by the mcyelium so the mycelium is the mother that is giving nutrients from alder and birch trees to hemlocks, cedars and Douglas firs.

And what we're seeing is not just the potential death of the Eastern Hemlock species that is to say, its extinction from nature due to this invading parasite but we're also seeing the death of an incredibly complex ecosystem for which these trees are merely the substrate for the aerial labyrinth of the sky that exists in their crowns.

On the other hand, a study in an old growth hemlock hardwood forest in New York found that Ailanthus was capable of competing successfully with native trees in canopy gaps where only 2 to 15 of full sun was available.