There it is, at the edge of my yard, struggling. It’s only one, maybe two feet tall, with a single pair of leaves—a baby maple sapling, so skinny, so fragile, and yet… little plants get help, and not only from the soil below and the water nearby.

The truth is much more startling, and more marvelous, than that. In his classic book The Trees in My Forest emeritus biology professor Bernd Heinrich describes how plants—especially in springtime—are fed, literally, by the whole planet. Think of a giant spoon stretching across continents, spilling nutrients into hopeful little startups.

I’m not crazy. Here’s what Heinrich says is happening.

In April, May, and early June, if you look very closely, you’ll notice