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The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate
Audiobook7 hours

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate

Written by Peter Wohlleben

Narrated by Mike Grady

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

Sunday Times Bestseller ‘A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement’ Charles Foster

Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (September)

Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings?

In The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben makes the case that the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.

A walk in the woods will never be the same again.

For those in the UK with a passion for top books on nature, Wohlleben's great work merges the worlds of plants, gardening, and general ecology into an absorbing narrative that underscores the importance of environmental conservation and protection. It is a significant addition to the literary conversation on how we interact with the living world around us. For fans of Suzanne Simard (Finding the Mother Tree), Tristan Gooley (How to Read a Tree), Merlin Sheldrake (Entangled Life) and Isabella Tree (Wilding) and Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass).

Editor's Note

The irreplaceable value of trees…

Especially in our age of climate change and deforestation, it’s important to understand the irreplaceable value of old-growth forests. Whether you love trees or want to learn more about the complex webs that impact our climate, “The Hidden Life of Trees” is a great read.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 13, 2016
ISBN9780008218348
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate

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Reviews for The Hidden Life of Trees

Rating: 4.221857982950819 out of 5 stars
4/5

915 ratings61 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Even if some of it might be speculation, it leaves you in awe of trees.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The author passes on his love of trees and forests through his words.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is beautiful book! This books just opens us a new perspective on plant life, which have been ignored by us. I don't ever want to stop listening to this book. It is so beautiful. The narration is also very soothing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    super interesting and informative. I recommend to all nature lovers.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The best non-academic book I've read or listened to about trees. The narrator was excellent. If I had the actual book it would go on the top shelf, a place reserved for books worth reading again.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have absolutely no science background so I can't address the science behind the thoughts in this book. But, I do love being in the woods and I thought this book was great. It was jam packed full of really fascinating and interesting tidbits.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The way the book is written strikes an imagination into the world of trees and its rich and secretive community.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So very interesting. And I loved the narrator's voice. I'll never treat plants with any disregard in future
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Um livro maravilhoso que nos faz despertar um olhar inteiramente novo sobre as árvores e a floresta. Bem narrado também.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The discovery of the interconnected and complex systems that are part of old growth forests.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A life-changing book. It's already transformed the way I look at the trees around me. Sometimes the author is anthropomorphising, but even when he is I think he's bridging that conceptual gap of understanding between animals like us and trees as effectively as possible. How else are we to understand other living beings around us than by analogy?

    When you see trees as living beings as worthy of life as any other, it emphasizes the moral importance of correcting human destruction of natural habitats and our role in causing the climate crisis.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Het minste dat je kan zeggen is dat dit ?Verborgen leven van bomen? overkomt als een heel sympathiek en interessant boek. Peter Wohlleben schrijft duidelijk met heel veel liefde over bomen, in het bijzonder de door hem zo gekoesterde en bewonderde beuk; in een 30-tal lemma?s behandelt hij tal van aspecten van leven en dood van bomen, gebaseerd op zijn eigen ervaring als houtvester en ook verwijzend naar allerhande wetenschappelijk onderzoek. En het beeld dat hij schetst is ronduit fascinerend: ik leerde tal van nieuwe dingen over bossen, bomen, schimmels en kevers enzovoort; Wohlleben illustreert treffend dat bomen veel complexere organismen zijn dat we doorgaans vermoeden.Maar toch heb ik mijn twijfels. Wohlleben vermengt voortdurend eigen observaties met vaststellingen uit wetenschappelijk onderzoek, maar ook met heel verrassende verklaringen waarvan niet duidelijk is waar ze vandaan komen: uit wetenschappelijke studies of uit zijn eigen koker. De hele droge, opsommende vertelstijl van Wohlleben geeft de misleidende indruk dat het allemaal ??n geheel is en berust op geverifieerde feiten. Maar wat dan te denken van bijvoorbeeld volgende passage: ?Twee echte vrienden letten er echter van tevoren op dat de takken die ze in de richting van de ander vormen niet te dik zijn. Die willen elkaar over en weer niets ontnemen en vormen daarom alleen krachtige kroondelen naar de buitenkant, dus in de richting van bomen waarmee ze niet bevriend zijn. Zulke paren zijn via hun wortels zo innig verbonden dat ze vaak zelfs samen doodgaan.? Van zo?n antropomorfe taalgebruik schrik je toch wel even, maar vooral in het begin van het boek schrijft Wohlleben geregeld over bomen alsof het mensen zijn. Nu ben ik niet zo?n bekrompen iemand ? denk ik toch ? dat ik meen dat er buiten de wetenschap helemaal geen heil bestaat; ik ben er absoluut van overtuigd dat er een heel deel van de werkelijkheid is waar we met de wetenschappelijke methode absoluut niet bij kunnen; of dat er ook niet-wetenschappelijk manieren zijn om naar de werkelijkheid te kijken die ook erg waardevol zijn (het holisme bijvoorbeeld, om uit het religieuze domein te blijven); en ik wil ook wel aannemen dat bomen en planten (en dieren en stenen zo je wil) veel complexere organismen zijn dan we tot nu toe aannemen. Ik wil daar open voor staan, maar ? dan heb ik toch liefst dat een auteur aangeeft waar hij het wetenschappelijke, geverifieerde domein verlaat en zich begeeft in het domein van de plausibele, op eigen ervaring gestoelde hypothesen, of gewoon een heel ander taalregister hanteert om iets over de werkelijkheid uit te drukken dat in andere (wetenschappelijke) taal niet lukt. En dat is mijn probleem met Wohlleben: ik wil hem gerust het voordeel van de twijfel geven, en zo liefdevol over bomen schrijven alsof het mensen waren is best sympathiek (want ook ik hou van bomen en bossen), maar hij moet het mij wel gunnen dat ik op mijn hoede blijf.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I was just listening to this and haven't finished it..... What's up with it now beeing not available in my country??
    Please respond.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A very enjoyably, thought-provoking book that leaves me with a desire to know more in at least 3 different directions!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Anthropomorphizing trees -- yes please! I have always been a bit disdainful of the scientific proposition of not anthropomorphizing other living things. I feel that it leads to a real lack of empathy and is used to justify awful behaviors that have negative consequences for our ecology. I felt that this book was companionable to another I have read, "Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?" by Frans de Waal.

    This book answered so many questions I have had about trees and how they behave. Like why do trees still drop leaves in climates like Southern California where the seasons don't really change? It also gave explanations for feelings I have had when I walk through various types of forests, from old growth (peace), to logged and replanted ones (dissonance).

    I loved the last quote in the book, "Until then, when you take your next walk in the forest, give free rein to your imagination--in many cases, what you imagine is not so far removed from reality after all!"
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed the book, and learned a lot — I think, anyway. I don’t entirely trust the science here. Scientists have been learning incredible things about trees lately, for sure. My guess is that everything in this book is backed by a science paper or two (there are some footnotes) but I’m not confident that it’s all settled science, or that we are given sufficient context for all the marvelous things described. (The author is a forester, not a scientist.) Also, the anthropomorphism has kind of run amok, I fear. Maybe it’s really pretty true that in some cases “mother” trees are “caring” for their young. Such a wonderful way to see it! But I think he’s gone out on a limb (!) saying that trees have emotions, as he does in the last chapter. Who knows, maybe depending on how you define emotion, maybe this could conceivably be true. But I think it’s a stretch, I doubt any rigorous science really indicates an emotional life for trees.

    I’d like to read a book, covering the same basic subject matter, by a well recognized biologist who specializes in trees and is also a good writer. Maybe Hope Jahren?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Surprisingly informative. Short chapters sense with tree info made easier to read by anthropomorphism if trees. Read for Nature Narratives Book Club.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Thorough description of the interconnected network of plants and other living beings. Reminds me of systems-thinking and should be required reading for all who want to better understand the systemic approach. If nothing else, this book will entice you to get out into nature and pay attention to your surroundings.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this nonfiction book that reads almost like a memoir of the forest. Wohlleben is a forest manager in Germany and he's written a book about his observations and scientific knowledge about trees. It's fascinating to hear about how trees communicate with each other, support each other, and defend themselves. The time scale they live in is completely different from the human lifespan, making them foreign and fascinating. I also was struck by how, though they reproduce so slowly that their evolution pace is extremely slow, they have great diversity within each species that protects them. We've done so much damage to our forests, and this book will make you want to be on the side of the trees.Highly recommended. Original publication date: 2016Author’s nationality: GermanOriginal language: GermanLength: 290 pagesRating: 4 starsFormat/where I acquired the book: purchased kindle editionWhy I read this: LT review
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mind blowing science, and yet an easy and enjoyable read. This is a fascinating look at the current research of what we understand about how mature forests work, how trees are interconnected and how they communicate and support each other. Wohlleben's combination of thoughtful observations based on his work as a forester in an established German forest preserve and skillful interweaving of information gathered from around the world creates a moving and inspiring argument for forest preservation. I particularly like that he comes from a logging background, so is able to relate the ongoing need for wood harvesting into this greater picture. It's an inspiring book for our time of rapid climate change -- the trees work slowly, but they can make a huge impact on our continued survival as a species. I hope this book finds a wide audience.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is an excellent read for anyone with any interest in trees. Each chapter dives into an aspect of trees' lives, bringing forth fascinating insights that are written in a way a wide audience can understand and enjoy.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I want/wanted to read about trees. I started another tree book, [book:Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest|54976983], and it was by someone from a logging family and I didn’t feel like reading a biography of a human/humans even if only a small part of the book and even this book starts off by a person who participated/participates in using trees. I got really tired of reading the sentences that start with or include “The forest I manage…” I’d love to read a tree book by an expert who is a pure nature lover and not someone whose current or past perspective includes trees for humans to use or to manage. Maybe [author:Bill McKibben|43861] was right though. Ever since I read his book [book:The End of Nature|1318899] in the 80s I’ve never been able to look at “nature” in the same way and maybe we’ve altered everything so much that we’re interconnected with trees to the point where we can’t be separated. I do wonder about the anthropomorphizing though. Maybe I will have to read that other book and hopefully more tree books to cross reference the information. I’m fascinated. Maybe I need to read a very recent and up to date botany book about trees.Overall though this is a beautifully written book. The most interesting facts for me were the ones about the trees’/forests’ elaborate ecosystems.Reading about natural forests makes me want to go see the redwoods or the sequoias and I’m afraid I’ll enjoy my local trees less than I have. Heavily managed and relatively recently planted, they could very well be hindered in being the “natural trees” we all like to assume they are.The trees information is fascinating and I learned a lot. He seems to know his subject matter though I do also want to read other books about trees to hopefully cover some of the same material and maybe learn even more than I did from this book, which I have to say is a lot. He does care about various forest/trees ecosystems and describes them in detail. It really is amazing. There is sort of some nature left, even if not untainted by humans on the planet. The (too few) black pen/ink illustrations of trees are lovely. There aren’t very many of them though. I read a Kindle e-edition borrowed from my public library so I don’t know if it has all the pictures that are in the paper edition(s).To sum up: I wanted to love this book but it just did not work for me. I do have quibbles with some of what is presented and how it’s presented, but mostly it’s probably not the book’s fault. I was hoping to even better appreciate the trees in the parklands I see on a regular basis but what I’m left with is some curiosity still unsatisfied and some sadness. I think maybe what would work for me is an on-site class, perhaps a walking through the trees class with an expert good at teaching. 2-1/2 stars for this book, rounded down because my reading experience was disappointing. Not a good start to my 2022 reading year. I hope that things improve.ETA: (in addition to correcting typos): Because of the way information is presented I’m not sure I can trust all of the facts. I need to read that other book and more books and information from legitimate sites on the web too.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A book about -- you guessed it! -- trees, especially about the aspects of them that we humans tend not to perceive or appreciate. Trees, it turns out, are much more sophisticated, complicated organisms than meets the eye, especially when you consider them in the context of a forest or an ecosystem. It's all really interesting subject matter, and I did learn some cool things, but I had decidedly mixed feelings about the book. Wohlleben gets, I think, a bit too repetitive on certain subjects, whereas with others he doesn't go into nearly as much scientific detail as I would like. (Although perhaps that's not too surprising. Not only is this book clearly meant to have a broad appeal, including to less science-y types, but Wohlleben himself is a forester, not a scientist.) He also does a lot of what I can only call anthropomorphizing, and while to a certain extent that's effective in making his point that trees are very much living things, not inanimate objects, he goes a bit further with it than I'm entirely comfortable with, and it leaves me with niggling doubts about the extent to which he might be letting sentiment trump science.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    nonfiction (forestry, biology, ecosystems). This was very like watching David Attenborough in "Life of Plants"--fascinating, and written in layman's language (though I would have liked to see a bit more science in it). Scientific studies are cited in the endnotes.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Never will I see trees the same. They are social creatures, communicating through their roots, feeding their sick neighbors, protecting their saplings, and agreeing not to infringe on one another's sun access. They can outlive humans by a hundred lifetimes. Anyone who wants to see beyond the human-centric world should read this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A much needed book that expands our perception of the plants we live with. Plants are far more sophisticated than we like to think and I'm betting they will survive us in the long game.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fascinating. I also love Wohlleben's clear enthusiasm for the subject. Sometimes this seems to get the better of him, however, so I'm not sure that he is always completely credible. (Ideally, there would also be more discussion of North American trees.) > without bark the tree cannot transport sugar from its leaves to its roots. As the roots starve, they shut down their pumping mechanisms, and because water no longer flows through the trunk up to the crown, the whole tree dries out. However, many of the trees I girdled continued to grow with more or less vigor. I know now that this was only possible with the help of intact neighboring trees. Thanks to the underground network, neighbors took over the disrupted task of provisioning the roots and thus made it possible for their buddies to survive.> An easy way to estimate the age of a young beech tree is to count the small nodes on its branches. These nodes are tiny swellings that look like a bunch of fine wrinkles. They form every year underneath the buds, and when these grow the following spring and the branch gets longer, the nodes remain behind. Every year, the same thing happens, and so the number of nodes corresponds with the age of the tree. When the branch gets thicker than about a tenth of an inch, the nodes disappear into the expanding bark. When I examined one of my young beech trees, it turned out that a single 8-inch-long twig already had twenty-five of these swellings.> If Central Europe were such a paradise, the competition would be won almost exclusively by beeches. They know exactly how to exploit abundance, and they suppress competitors by growing up through the crowns of other trees and then covering the losers with their upper branches> Spruce store essential oils in their needles and bark, which act like antifreeze. And that’s why they don’t need to jettison their green finery but keep it wrapped around their branches in the cold season. As soon as the weather warms up in the spring, they can start photosynthesizing. Not a day is lost, and even if there are only a few weeks in which sugar and wood can be produced, the tree can still grow an inch or two every year.> Right from the beginning, [the yew] puts considerably more energy into building up its root system than other species of trees. Here, it stashes away nutrients, and if misfortune strikes above ground, it grows right back without missing a beat. This often leads to the formation of multiple trunks, which may merge when the tree reaches an advanced age, giving the tree an untidy appearance. And boy can these trees grow old! Living to be a thousand years old or more, they easily outstrip the closest competition, and over the course of centuries, they increasingly get to bask in the sun whenever an old tree growing above them breathes its last. Despite this, yews grow no more than 65 feet tall.> alders. At around 100 feet, it’s true they don’t grow as tall as their competitors, but they have no problem growing on unpopular swampy ground. Their secret is a system of air ducts inside their roots. These transport oxygen to the tiniest tips, a bit like divers who are connected to the surface via a breathing tube. In addition, the trees have cork cells in the lower parts of their trunks, which allow air to enter. It is only when the water level remains higher than these breathing holes for an extended period of time that the alders weaken sufficiently for their roots to fall victim to aggressive fungi.> this mechanism only functions within a few hundred miles of the coast. The farther inland you go, the drier it is, because the clouds get rained out and disappear. When you get about 400 miles from the coast, it is so dry that the first deserts appear. If we depended on just this mechanism for water, life would be possible only in a narrow band around the edge of continents; the interior of land masses would be arid and bleak. So, thank goodness for trees. … Part of every rainfall is intercepted in the canopy and immediately evaporates again. In addition, each summer, trees use up to 8,500 cubic yards of water per square mile, which they release into the air through transpiration. This water vapor creates new clouds that travel farther inland to release their rain. As the cycle continues, water reaches even the most remote areas. This water pump works so well that the downpours in some large areas of the world, such as the Amazon Basin, are almost as heavy thousands of miles inland as they are on the coast.> the bird cherry. Their leaves contain nectar glands, which secrete the same sweet juice as the flowers. In this case, the nectar is for ants, which spend most of the summer in the trees. And just like people, from time to time these insects crave something heartier than a sugary snack. They get this in the form of caterpillars, and thus they rid the bird cherry of its uninvited guests. But it doesn’t always turn out the way the tree intended. The caterpillars get eaten, but apparently, sometimes the amount of sweet nectar the tree provides doesn’t satisfy the ants and they begin to farm aphids.> To protect its needles from freezing, a conifer fills them with antifreeze. To ensure it doesn’t lose water to transpiration over the winter, it covers the exterior of its needles with a thick layer of wax. As an extra precaution, the skin on its needles is tough and hard, and the small breathing holes on the underside are buried extra deep.> As long as the trees are healthy, firs always keep ten, spruce six, and pines three years’ worth of needles, as you can tell by taking a look at the annual growth intervals on their branches. Pines especially, which shed about a quarter of their green needles, can look somewhat sparse in winter.> Thanks to climate change, fall temperatures are remaining high for longer and longer, and the gamble of holding on to leaves is being drawn out until November. All the while, fall storms are beginning as punctually as ever in October, and so the risk of getting blown over while still in full leaf rises> Walnuts have compounds in their leaves that deal so effectively with insects that garden lovers are often advised to put a bench under a canopy of walnuts if they want a comfortable place to relax in the garden, because this is where they will have the least chance of being bitten by mosquitoes. The phytoncides in conifers are particularly pungent, and they are the origin of that heady forest scent that is especially intense on hot summer days.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this at a chapter a day for 36 days and learnt so much! This is written for the total layman, though the sheer quantity of info means it needs digersting slowly.Having largely regarded trees as big, stationary objects ("can they FEEL?") ...I now see them as much more. They can HELP each other, providing transfusions of nutrients from the robust to the sickly. They can COMMUNICATE - one tree being preyed on can alert others, so by the time the creature has moved on, they have added some nasty-tasting chemical to their leaves. Having always assured the granddaughter that they slurp up water through roots like a straw- Wohlleben asks the very valid question "aqnd what propels it up to the top of a gisant sequoia?" ...and admits we dont fully know.The author- a forestry manager- considers all kinds of questions- the dangers (and benefits) of bugs, fungus; the difference between ancient woodlands and recent plantations; how species adapt to changes in climate...Very very interesting and I've bought his other works to further inform myself...we sure do live in an amazing world!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book. Non-fiction that is written better than a lot of fiction.

    Throughly engaging and terribly depressing in that it shows us some of the wonder that we are surrounded by every single day that we treat it as if it was just another utile asset that we can abuse.

    It's a bit like reading Sapiens all over again, here's a man showing us how smart and alive trees are and it lots of ways more human that us.

    I know that all sounds depressing but it's not. If you have any curiosity left then you must read this book. For God's sake don't read it on paper! Paper comes from trees!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Trees, magnificent trees. They thrive in communities by sharing resources via fungal networks, alerting their neighbors to threats via wind-born signals, creating their own microclimates using the vast surface area they consist of and shield from the elements, and growing more diverse (predominately on an itty-bitty level) as early generations decay into the growth matter for the future. These communities (natural-growth forests) serve as relays for the moisture-laden clouds - bringing rain to the interior of continents that otherwise would be thirsty AF (barren). Those isolated from their brethren fair significantly worse as they are left to fend entirely for themselves. Sleep appears to be as important for them as it is for humans yet their life cycle beats to a slower rhythm which makes them seem inanimate to the careless observer. Wohlleben contends that trees feel pain, in addition to a myriad of other senses - not that I ever doubted Crysta from Fern Gully.