How Trees Make Tea

Abstract

Tea is a mix of natural plant chemicals dissolved in water. You should not drink it, but a weak tea drips through a tree’s branches and runs down its trunk when it is raining. The main ingredients in both tea and tree tea are organic molecules. Some, like tannins, are colorful and give tea and tree tea their brownish colors. Others, including sugars, are clear and loaded with energy. Some molecules build up on the tree’s surface as it sweats. Other molecules are deposited on the tree by the wind, building up like grime on a car. When it rains, the built up sweat and dirt are washed away as tree tea. Tree tea is an energy drink that bacteria on the forest floor crave! Tree tea is also a flow of carbon from trees to soils that researchers are just beginning to understand.