# SF story ID: Alien trees talk by changing leaf color **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368 "2017-12-27T03:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/1 "2017-12-27T03:13:47Z")
Oh, Oracle of SDMB, please help this poor supplicant find a story that is but vaguely remembered. Humans discover that the trees on an alien planet are intelligent, and communicate with each other by changing their leaf color. It’s slow talk, but faster than just the seasonal change we see in Earth trees. As I recall the intelligent trees called themselves Hlutur. One of them gets transplanted to Earth to be their ambassador. It does help with some human and Earth problems, lives a long time, tries to talk with the Earth trees to no avail. After many years, it is dying of old age, and asks to be transplanted back to its home world. The humans do that, and its last moments are in the forests of its home world, surrounded by its fellows, in a gentle snow. My Google-fu is weak. “Hlutur” is a legitimate Icelandic word, so that’s what turns up. I could not find it in the ISFDB. The story would have been in Analog or F&SF in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Any ideas? Or did I hug too many trees in my youth? Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/2 "2017-12-27T03:16:48Z")
I can’t help you but it does sound familiar. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/3 "2017-12-27T10:44:53Z")
This is very probably one of the Hlutr short stories (the guy I just copy/pasted from thinks it is called “Diplomat”) in the anthology [The Leaves of October](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?8917) by Don Sakers. It’s one of that guy’s favorite collections. ([Second link down](https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=lHlDWq3SB6HRjwS2p4_wAg&q=sf+story+trees+communicate+leaf+colors&oq=sf+story+trees+communicate+leaf+colors&gs_l=psy-ab.3...1290.1290.0.2008.2.1.0.0.0.0.668.668.5-1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.0.0.0...0.VFB1lgnw474).) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/4 "2017-12-27T13:26:41Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > This is very probably one of the Hlutr short stories (the guy I just copy/pasted from thinks it is called “Diplomat”) in the anthology [The Leaves of October](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?8917) by Don Sakers. It’s one of that guy’s favorite collections. > > ([Second link down](https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=lHlDWq3SB6HRjwS2p4_wAg&q=sf+story+trees+communicate+leaf+colors&oq=sf+story+trees+communicate+leaf+colors&gs_l=psy-ab.3...1290.1290.0.2008.2.1.0.0.0.0.668.668.5-1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.0.0.0...0.VFB1lgnw474).) You beat me to it. “Leaves of October” is a book I enjoyed very much, and Don around writing and going to cons (he also writes the book reviews for “Analog” these days). ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/5 "2017-12-27T16:13:58Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nn8YubD01sk/hqdefault.jpg "Clint Eastwood. "I Talk To the Trees"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn8YubD01sk) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/6 "2017-12-27T16:39:23Z")
Thank you, everyone! This place raaaacks! ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/7 "2017-12-27T17:24:49Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > You beat me to it. “Leaves of October” is a book I enjoyed very much, and Don around writing and going to cons (he also writes the book reviews for “Analog” these days). Somehow an “is still” got left of the middle of that sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/8 "2017-12-27T18:10:51Z")
And “out” got left of that sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/9 "2017-12-27T18:13:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And “out” got left of that sentence. Thank you (and yikes, what’s with my sentences today!?). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/10 "2017-12-27T18:13:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And “out” got left of that sentence. And this one. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-story-id-alien-trees-talk-by-changing-leaf-color/805368/11 "2017-12-27T19:41:15Z")
“And this out one.”? Nah, that doesn’t really work.