Y for more chromosomes and gender fluidity in trees.

The dying ash at my window takes me back to lockdown during the pandemic.The threat of danger and death rustled through me as I lay in bed and watched the ash tree suffering the slow death of ash dieback. I felt trapped in delays. Would I be able to plant the native woodland or would covid put that on hold too? The swish of ash in hockey sticks and hurly sticks remind me to explore the roots of  connection between people and trees, between human nature and the natural world..

Ghosts of dead friends, Margaret Coulson, Anthony Peppiat, Jaya Graves, Ann Brown and John Shiers,  persuade me to face my disappointment over the increasing polarisation between women as women and Trans people which accelerated during the pandemic. Another reason to retreat from publicity for my novel, Michel-Michelle where I explore the complexities of family relationships and understanding when the birth father of the main character transitioned. I find a sensitive piece by Valentijn De Hingh on the “trans debate” , the reflection and compassion. (thecorrespondent.com) comfort me. The binaries of good and evil or men versus women are not helpful when dealing with the complexity and vulnerability of gender identity.

The tree position in yoga spirals me backwards to the copse of trees near the freshly built public housing of 1950’s Ulster. I feel the roots of my despair in the seven-year-old catholic girl who is forbidden to return to the copse  with the seven-year old protestant boy. I close my eyes and balance on one leg as I look out the big window with its view of Donegal Bay.  “I talk to the trees but they don’t listen to me.” The folksong sung so sweetly by my little sister rings around the decades of the rosary murmured so long ago. Proust at least had the grace to realise it was he who couldn’t understand what the trees wanted to say to him. I listen to the trees who shake their leaves at the naivete of humans who are far from understanding the language of our shared nature. We ignore another version of the truth as it wafts towards us on the wind. I find hope in the stories of natural science.

Scientists recorded how tree flowers use male and female sexual parts for propagation, based upon appearance of certain flowers at one point in time. Scientists did not know yet that sexual appearance and function are not tightly bound in trees. It is not what flowers look like, but how they function over time that determines a tree’s true gender. Thanks to more recent research we now know there is great variation in tree flowering. Tree sexual classes are not always as they appear nor are they discrete opposites. In a group of trees of the same species, some trees might generate only male flowers while other trees might generate only female flowers. In some species, a group of trees could have co-sexual, male and female parts. A predominantly male tree might generate a scattered few female or co-sexual flowers. A predominately co-sexual tree might generate a few male flowers. A predominately female tree could generate occasional co-sexual flowers.

In flowering trees, tree gender can change — from season to season, over the life of a tree, as the environment changes, or indeed gender can remain constant for life according to research by Dr. Coder (1) As I enter the winter season of my lifetime, I take comfort from trees and their diversity. My roots and branches hold memories of the naivete of Spring, the bloom of bisexual Summer, the rusty gold of transition to Autumn and the wrapped up wisdom of Winter.  The native woodland planted during the pandemic in Donegal is a testament to survival of nature and the human spirit.

• Tree Gender: Tree Gender: Sexual Reproduction Strategies Sexual Reproduction Strategies by Dr. Kim D. Coder, Professor of Tree Biology & Health Care Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources, University of Georgia, USA