The Hidden Life of Trees

What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World

by Peter Wohlleben

Hardcover, 288 pages

English language

Published Jan. 24, 2016 by Greystone Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-77164-248-4

(39 reviews)

In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. Much like human families, tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, and support them as they grow, sharing nutrients with those who are sick or struggling and creating an ecosystem that mitigates the impact of extremes of heat and cold for the whole group. As a result of such interactions, trees in a family or community are protected and can live to be very old. In contrast, solitary trees, like street kids, have a tough time of it and in most cases die much earlier than those in a group.

Drawing on groundbreaking new discoveries, Wohlleben presents the science behind …

Drawing on groundbreaking new discoveries, Wohlleben presents the science behind the secret and previously unknown life of trees and their communication abilities; he describes how these discoveries have informed his own practices in the forest around him. As he says, a happy forest is a healthy forest, and he believes that eco-friendly practices not only are economically sustainable but also benefit the health of our planet and the mental and physical health of all who live on Earth.

8 editions

Erin reviewed The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Review of 'The Hidden Life of Trees' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

2 stars makes it seem like I hated this book, but it’s more that it’s not for me. The right person can get more out of it. For me, I was largely bored but came across something interesting once in a while.

Per usual with nonfiction, I didn’t like the structure here. It’s a collection of random thoughts which didn’t help my concentration or ability to learn something.

I liked learning that some forest fires are necessary, but we have messed up that process. I also thought it was interesting that our attempts to “help” trees by creating what seem to us to be ideal environments have failed - Nature does what it does for a reason. We really have a lot of hubris

Fabian reviewed The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Review of 'The Hidden Life of Trees' on 'Storygraph'

No rating

Borrowed this from Libby on a whim.

A tad too much wishful thinking and anthropomorphism for my liking. You can tell the author sees his forest's beeches like his own darling children. I admire his passion, but to me, claiming that plants have feelings and such very much diminishes how informative this book would be otherwise.

Still, I appreciated the information on the Wood Wide Web, which I intend to do more reading on.

Fionnáin reviewed The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Review of 'The Hidden Life of Trees' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

An excellent book - humorous and thoughtful - that gives an introduction to a philosophy of forestry that is becoming more popular in recent years. Wohlleben crafts the book in short chapters, each one with an introduction to an aspect of trees, that is kept at an accessible level throughout. If any complaint can be made, it is that sometimes it is too accessible, dangling ideas temptingly before switching to another topic. But there is enough information elsewhere to supplement.

From communication through fungi, smell and sound, to the nurturing of trees by their parents, this book opens a world of the forest that helps change a perspective of trees.

One note: the irritating use of imperial measurements in the English translation makes it hard for us metric-minded to keep up - I assume the German original had metric so the choice was for American readers I guess, but both …

Kirk Moodey reviewed The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Review of 'The Hidden Life of Trees' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

When I saw the title I was half afraid it would be a woo book, as it reminded me of an experiment where someone hooked up a lie detector to a plant, which is rather nonsensical. Thankfully, it was not!
It was pretty fascinating, actually, I'll never look at plants the same way again.

Eric Lawton reviewed The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Review of 'The Hidden Life of Trees' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

I loved this book.
The love that the author has for trees comes out so clearly, and the stories he tells are so informative that you can't help but see trees differently.
It helps that our house is surrounded by forest; now I can't wait until Spring to start looking for the things I learned from this book, even though the forest round here is a very different mix of species.

otrops reviewed The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Review of 'The Hidden Life of Trees' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

This is a very readable discussion of trees and forests. Peter Wohllben clearly loves his subject and is able to approach it from a number of different angles. Along the way, I learned a great deal I didn't know about trees.

One of the things that makes this book so readable is its use of metaphor and anthropomorphism. Unfortunately, this is where the book also falls down. In one section, Wohllben talks about the growth strategies of different trees as following an "etiquette book" (those that grow straight have followed the book). This gives him something he can easily refer back to later in the book, but it also gives the impression that there is only one correct way for a tree to grow.

It's a shame because I felt I learned a lot from this book, but because of Wohllben's tendency to let his metaphors get away from him, …

sdogood reviewed The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Review of 'The Hidden Life of Trees' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Who knew trees had such secrets? According to Wohlleben, the trees not only knew, but felt good about it. Many fascinating details here.

Mark Anderson reviewed The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Review of 'The Hidden Life of Trees' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I did enjoy the conversational style of this book and how the author anthropomorphizes trees to bring them closer to our understanding, while basking in the awe of their differences.

But I just didn't find the sentences flowed well, making it difficult to sustain attention and interest when reading on a crowded bus on my way to and from work.

This isn't to say that it isn't a worthy read, if you are into trees. There were many spots of illumination throughout. But still waiting for an author to do for trees what [b:Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel|22320456|Beyond Words What Animals Think and Feel|Carl Safina|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1415428650s/22320456.jpg|41714030] does for animals.