Start with what is true, because a good deal of it is. Trees really do form intimate partnerships with fungi. Fine fungal threads wrap around and enter tree roots, drawing water and nutrients from the soil and passing them to the tree, taking sugars in return, and shielding the roots from disease. Those relationships, called mycorrhizas, are real, ancient and essential, and forests genuinely could not exist without them. Wohlleben’s deeper achievement is one of feeling. He persuaded millions of readers that a forest is a living, interdependent community worth protecting, which is both scientifically defensible and quietly urgent.
