Finding the Mother Tree
Uncovering the Wisdom and Intelligence of the Forest
Published on 3. March 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-0-14-199028-6 (ISBN)
Description
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
'A scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series' Kate Kellaway, Observer
A dazzling scientific detective story from the ecologist who first discovered the hidden language of trees
No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience.
Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest.
Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity.
In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it's too late.
'A scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series' Kate Kellaway, Observer
A dazzling scientific detective story from the ecologist who first discovered the hidden language of trees
No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience.
Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest.
Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity.
In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it's too late.
Reviews / Votes
A scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series... Just as she disinters earthy mushrooms and the finest of filaments, so she lays bare the human heart with moving simplicity... It is her gallant mission in the book and in her life - and one essential to combating the climate crisis - to make science more humanly engaged -- Kate Kellaway * Observer * Finding the Mother Tree is the kind of story we need to be telling, a new way of communicating that the world desperately needs to hear... A reminder to listen to our wilder selves, and to remember, with humility, how little we know of the complexities of the natural world -- Tiffany Francis-Baker * Guardian * This book is a testament to Simard's skill as a science communicator. Her research is clearly defined, the steps of her experiments articulated, her astonishing results explained and the implications laid bare: We ignore the complexity of forests at our peril -- Jonathan C. Slaght * The New York Times * A masterwork of planetary significance * Booklist (starred review) * [Simard] is an intellectual force... Simard's results are so revolutionary and controversial that they have quickly worked their way into social theory, urban planning, culture and art... We have a lot of rethinking to do about the economic and political models that, since Darwin, have been taken to be natural -- Kate Brown * Independent * Finding the Mother Tree has come at a crucial moment... With biodiversity on a knife edge, the need to appreciate and understand the complexity and brilliance of the natural world could not be more important -- Rosie Boycott * Financial Times * Vivid and inspiring... a radical new understanding of plants -- Eugenia Bone * Wall Street Journal * Speaking with Simard felt like coming to the headwaters of a vast system of ideas, both innovative and ancient... To read Finding the Mother Tree is to imagine the view from a 250-foot redwood. The recognition that we're all connected is one of the great gifts of the memoir * Los Angeles Times * [Suzanne Simard] forever transformed our views of the world and the interconnectivity of our environment. Finding the Mother Tree is not only a deeply beautiful memoir about one woman's impactful life, it's also a call to action to protect, understand and connect with the natural world -- Amy Adams A vivid and compelling memoir of [Simard's] lifelong quest to prove that the forest is more than just a collection of trees * The New York Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 194 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
294 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-199028-6 (9780141990286)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2021
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€10.99
Available for download
Person
Dr. Suzanne Simard is the bestselling author of Finding the Mother Tree. She is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, where she leads The Mother Tree Project. She has earned a global reputation for pioneering research on tree connectivity and communication and its impact on the health and diversity of forests. She lives with her family in the mountains around Nelson, British Columbia.