Trees grow from the air.
From where does a tree acquire its mass? Mass is approximately conserved and does not teleport, so a tree’s mass must come from its surroundings. These include only the soil, the air, and water. If a substantial portion of the mass of a tree were taken from the soil it grew in, it would sink into the ground as it depleted the dirt beneath its roots. But this does not happen; trees sit high. Thus most of the mass of a tree must be acquired from water and from the air.
And indeed, we are told in biology class that the process of photosynthesis that produces the sugars a tree uses to grow consumes water and carbon dioxide, which is found in the air. Trees grow not from the soil beneath their roots, but from a combination of the air surrounding them and water drawn up from their roots.
