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Why Are There No Holes Around Trees?

Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell | March 27, 2026



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Sources & further reading:
https://sites.google.com/view/sources-treesii/

Trees are among the most fascinating life forms on Earth, but what makes them truly fascinating is hiding underground! They are able to break solid rocks with hydraulic roots, all while working together with the underground fungal networks that can stretch for kilometers. Above and below, trees are running biological empires we’re only beginning to understand.

How does something so massive survive with roots growing so shallow? What are trees really made of and how are they able to grow so big?

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Written by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

Comments

This post currently has 41 comments.

  1. @Dellik00

    March 27, 2026 at 12:44 am

    tbf, didnt yall just do a video explaining how trees are in fact, mostly dead, so that isnt 2k tons of living weight. im guessing more like 100 tons of living weight

  2. @aliasifchowdhury3419

    March 27, 2026 at 12:44 am

    This is a blockbuster movie of what plants are doing all the time, just several times faster with high resolution animated graphics. Everybody who thinks plants are boring and do nothing, they should definitely try to watch this video.

  3. @andrewrowling9529

    March 27, 2026 at 12:44 am

    Fantastic video as usual. Just one gripe as a chemistry teacher: CO2 is a linear molecule. It's not bent like a water molecule, and the atoms are very similar in size. What is shown at 0:49 is more like a water molecule.

  4. @plantsfishandbirds4923

    March 27, 2026 at 12:44 am

    How did trees ancestors invented chlorophyll and learned to harvest solar energy to convert it to chemical stored energy. Please don’t tell me by coincidence because chlorophyll is extremely complex and it’s precise chemical build can’t not be formed on its own by coincidence no matter how many billions of years you give it.

  5. @falkgaard

    March 27, 2026 at 12:44 am

    I'm looking forward to a video about lichen. Lichen is super cool, they're like three different kinds of organisms collaborating with agriculture and shit.

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