I just finished reading Peter Wohlleben's The Hidden Life of Trees and found it refreshingly straightforward. The book is, plainly, about trees, full stop. I say refreshingly because many of the books I have read in this theme, and many of the thoughts I post based on my own observations and meditations, exist in that fraught zone between plant and human. I will be the first to admit that without rigorous research and deep contemplation, my posts can veer toward the banal, although I believe that this simplicity does serve the purpose of normalizing the idea of plants as intelligent beings, especially for an readership whom I suspect does not read widely and deeply in the topic, which is an important aim of this blog. I therefore trot in that thin band of discourse between the sophisticated and the naive.
Wohlleben by no means ignores the human relations with plants, but his main focus is on forests and the plant to plant and plant to animal relations that make them. This does not prevent him from using human metaphors for trees, most insightfully perhaps when he likens commercially produced trees to 'streetkids' who, having had their roots trimmed of their most intelligent parts, and having grown up in the vegetal version of foster homes, have sadly had their individual and collective capacities curtailed such that they live now and will forever live in a diminished state, in terms of both the quality and quantity of their existence.
Wohlleben's book adds a great deal to the discussion by treating plants on their own terms. As a forester, he seems to be especially comfortable in his relationship to trees, plants and other denizens of the forest, so that he sets a model for ideal relations between humans and their environment.
Still, there are moments, especially in his final chapter, where he lets his imagination run a bit and hopes for a time when science will allow us to actually know what plants are saying, to each other as well as to us. I suspect, however, that like the denizens of forests everywhere, Wohlleben already knows what the trees under his care are saying to him, having lived among them for decades.
There is great deal to contemplate in this slender volume, and it will take some time for me to synthesize some or all of it into the running discourse, a process that will undoubtedly produce fruit for future posts. In the meantime, I highly recommend that you slot The Hidden Life of Trees into your reading list.
Wohlleben by no means ignores the human relations with plants, but his main focus is on forests and the plant to plant and plant to animal relations that make them. This does not prevent him from using human metaphors for trees, most insightfully perhaps when he likens commercially produced trees to 'streetkids' who, having had their roots trimmed of their most intelligent parts, and having grown up in the vegetal version of foster homes, have sadly had their individual and collective capacities curtailed such that they live now and will forever live in a diminished state, in terms of both the quality and quantity of their existence.
Wohlleben's book adds a great deal to the discussion by treating plants on their own terms. As a forester, he seems to be especially comfortable in his relationship to trees, plants and other denizens of the forest, so that he sets a model for ideal relations between humans and their environment.
Still, there are moments, especially in his final chapter, where he lets his imagination run a bit and hopes for a time when science will allow us to actually know what plants are saying, to each other as well as to us. I suspect, however, that like the denizens of forests everywhere, Wohlleben already knows what the trees under his care are saying to him, having lived among them for decades.
There is great deal to contemplate in this slender volume, and it will take some time for me to synthesize some or all of it into the running discourse, a process that will undoubtedly produce fruit for future posts. In the meantime, I highly recommend that you slot The Hidden Life of Trees into your reading list.
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