Messages from Trees
The Science Behind Leaning Trees
One afternoon while walking through the woods, I stopped in front of a tree that caught my attention. Its trunk didn’t rise straight up toward the sky like the others around it. Instead, it leaned to the side, as though the tree were trying to move away from something hidden underground. After growing sideways for a little bit, the trunk straightened again, as if the tree had found its balance and decided to stand tall once more.
At first glance, it looked like a quirk of nature, maybe even an accident. But what if the tree was responding to something real and invisible—a subtle force beneath the soil?
It may sound mystical, but there is a grounded explanation. Trees aren’t only chasing sunlight with their leaves—they’re also listening to the warmth rising from the Earth itself. When that warmth is blocked or weakened by underground water, trees adjust their growth to regain balance.
Trees Sense More Than We Think
We know plants bend toward sunlight—that’s phototropism. Trees do something similar with heat, known as thermotropism. Normally, the Earth itself radiates a gentle, constant bath of infrared energy. This invisible warmth is essential to life—it feeds cell activity, root growth, and overall vitality.
Solar Warmth vs. Earth’s Warmth
To understand what trees are responding to, it is helpful to separate two distinct types of infrared light.
Solar infrared makes up about half of the sunlight reaching Earth, but most of it never reaches the ground intact. The atmosphere and clouds absorb and scatter much of it, and what does arrive varies constantly with the time of day, season, latitude, and weather conditions. It’s powerful, but irregular and only present when the sun is shining.
The Earth’s own infrared is different. This radiation comes from the planet’s surface itself. As the Sun warms the ground, rocks, and bodies of water, these materials absorb that energy. Then, they continuously re-emit it as thermal radiation. This re-emission is highly stable, concentrated in the 8–14 micrometer range—the so-called “biological window.” This is the very band that water inside cells is tuned to absorb most efficiently.
Unlike solar infrared, Earth’s surface infrared is steady, homogenous, and present both day and night. It provides a constant, gentle bath of warmth that quietly sustains living systems.
How Water Veins Disturb the Earth's Warmth
Now, let’s connect this to underground water veins.
When the Earth’s surface (soil, rock, and water bodies) absorbs energy from the sun, it continuously re-emits that energy as infrared radiation in the 8–14 μm range. This radiation travels through the upper layers of soil, providing a gentle, stable warmth that roots and microorganisms depend on. To plants, this steady “thermal bath” is just as important for vitality as visible sunlight.
However, water is an excellent absorber of infrared radiation—especially in that exact 8–14 μm band. When a water vein flows beneath the soil, it acts almost like a sponge for this terrestrial infrared. Instead of allowing the warmth to rise evenly toward the surface, the water absorbs and disperses it.
This means the soil directly above the water vein radiates far less infrared than the soil beside it. Think of it like a patch of shade—not visible with your eyes, but an “infrared shadow” that creates an energetic deficit zone.
The Tree’s Quiet Wisdom
Tree roots and tissues are exquisitely sensitive. Above the water vein, less infrared reaches the roots, metabolism slows, and tissues develop more weakly. Next to the edge of the water vein, the infrareds are strong and then become normal a few yards away. This imbalance, produced by the water weakening the infrared emissions at the surface, causes the trunk to lean to one side.
Once the tree grows out past the influence of the underground water’s “infrared shadow,” balance returns, growth equalizes, and the trunk straightens again. The water vein does not harm the tree chemically or through lack of water—in fact, water itself is life-giving. The problem is energetic: the water absorbs the subtle thermal radiation that normally nourishes root and cell function. To the tree, it feels as though part of the soil is “hungry” or “cold,” and it naturally adjusts its growth to escape.
Seen this way, a leaning trunk is not a deformity—it is the tree’s wisdom in action. It is almost as if the tree is acting like a living antenna—reaching up for light, but also grounding itself in the Earth’s warmth
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The Science Behind the Warmth
So why is this infrared so vital? Several discoveries point the way.
Cell power plants. Studies show that infrared in the 8–14 μm range stimulates our cells’ mitochondria, boosting the production of ATP—the fuel that powers almost everything in biology. Trees benefit from this just as much as humans and animals do.
Water structure in cells. Research by Gerald Pollack revealed that when water absorbs infrared, it shifts into a more structured form called exclusion zone (EZ) water. This “living water” stores energy, much like a biological battery, which is essential for metabolism. Without enough infrared, cell water cannot organize itself properly, and vitality drops.
A gentle, steady heat. Unlike the sharp heat of the sun, terrestrial infrared provides a deep, soft warmth that penetrates tissues without causing stress. It is this subtle energy that creates the background hum of life.
Why This Matters for All of Life
Terrestrial infrared is not just important for trees—it is essential for all living organisms. It helps water in our cells organize, keeps metabolism running smoothly, and provides a constant energetic bath that life quietly relies upon. Solar radiation may give us bursts of energy, but it is fleeting. The stable warmth of the Earth’s infrared is the background rhythm that sustains life. Some scientists even suggest it may have been one of the original conditions that allowed life to emerge in the first place.
Conclusion
The next time you’re out walking and notice a tree that leans before straightening again, pause for a moment. What you’re seeing isn’t clumsiness or accident but one of nature’s quiet conversations with the Earth. The tree is simply adjusting, moving out of an invisible shadow, and finding its equilibrium once more.
Life, as it turns out, doesn’t come only from the sun overhead. It also depends on the steady pulse of warmth from below—the constant heartbeat of the Earth itself.
By Dominique Susani and Karen Crowley-Susani
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Hi, I really enjoyed reading this and did not know about it. I was wondering if this depends on the species of tree as some love water. Do we know how it balances the need for warmth and water or would the water not affect the direction of growth as this is absorbed through the roots? A lot of willows near where I leave seems to grow over the stream. Thank you!