Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

by Suzanne Simard

Simile

I picked the mushroom, this fruit of the fungus that otherwise lived mainly belowground.

Simile

full of DNA that binds, recombines, and mutates to produce novel genetic material that is diverse and adapted for changing environmental conditions.

(Suillus lakei)

fungal mycelium, the network that blankets the billions of organic and mineral particles making up the soil.

The mushroom is the visible tip of something deep and elaborate,

Simile

Suillus

Mycenas,

Grannie Winnie,

my younger brother, Kelly,

Québécois names like Leblanc and Gagnon and Tremblay,

Grannie Winnie

Inonoaklin Valley,

Humus is the product of plant decay.

Trees love to root in the humus,

these root tips were glowing yellow,

Simile

yellow mycelium

hyphae—along

Nakusp,

yellow, plus white and pink too—each

why were so many fungal threads not only sprouting from the root tips but blazing with a palette like this?

a guardian tree.

Simile

Simile metaphor

white-flowered rhododendrons

subalpine firs

At least in theory.

All the new seedlings were struggling—every single sad little planting. Why did they look so awful?

Why, in contrast, did the wild firs germinating in that old-growth patch look so brilliant?

I caved to my fears of a rebuttal and jotted, “Satisfactory, but replace the seedlings that have died.”

I tried to find any seedlings that were healthy, but to no avail. What was triggering the sickness?

I pulled another spruce seedling from its planting hole,

By the book.

Not a single root seemed to get what it was supposed to do. None was sprouting new white tips to forage in the ground.

subalpine fir

a parting shot—sent

Haha

I was amazed to see the same bright yellow fungal threads wrapped around the root tips as I’d seen in the old-growth forest, once again exactly the same color as the mycelium, the network of fungal hyphae growing out of the stems

Suillus pancake mushrooms.

P. 48

beneficial hyphae

a different fungal species. More than a million exist on earth, about six times the number of plant species, with only about 10 percent of fungal species identified.

subalpine fir?

we could plant them so their roots touched the yellow fungal web in the soil.

grizzly.

Haha

I was alone in the back forty with a startled grizzly.

Haha