Mother Tree Skeptics Call for More Study

The mother tree hypothesis suggests that trees form networks to share resources and communicate using fungi growing in their roots. Find out why a new study questions the evidence for this idea and calls for better experiments to uncover the truth.

The more time I spend in nature, the more I’m convinced it’s an interconnected web of cooperation. That’s what led me to pick up Professor Suzanne Simard’s bestselling book Finding the Mother Tree.

Part autobiography, part science communication, and lavishly illustrated, her book tells the story of how Professor Simard grew up in a logging family, and went on to develop a theory that trees communicate. Her findings show that trees use the fungi that grow in their roots to share resources and send signals below the ground.

Professor Simard is remarkably candid about the biases she encountered from the forest industry and the scientific community about her research. She describes her emotions in painful detail as she presents her findings to skeptical and even hostile audiences of her peers.

Finding the Mother Tree is a Painfully Personal Book

Finding the Mother Tree is a painfully personal book, outlining in detail the arduous odyssey that led to its author’s discoveries. This includes personal…