I’ve been waiting for months for a book published in Germany by a scientist named Peter Wohllenben called “The Hidden Life Of Trees.” a book that is romantic and enchanting as well as scientific. Wohllenben has spent his life in the woods of Europe studying the way trees care for one another, communicate and try to protect themselves from insects, climate and human beings.

Drawing on detailed science, Wollenben describes how trees are very much like human families, tree parents live together with their offspring, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share food with the sick and struggling, share the sun and sky with members of their social networks.

I’ve just started the book, but I can that a walk in the woods will never be the same again. Maria has long felt the emotions of the forest, she talks to trees and listens to them all the time. It is riveting to learn how trees protect one another, and learn to share light, how they use their roots to try and help the sick and dying trees around them, how they protect themselves from insects and animals by emitting bitter scents.

Scientists have found that different tree species are in contact with one another, they communicate by smell, visual and electrical signals, which travel via a form of nerve cell at the tips of the roots. They warn one another, nourish one another. Trees, says Wohllenben, have clearly defined social networks.

I’m just a few chapters into the book, but it is clear that Wohllenben is a scientist as well as a romantic, his knowledge of trees is detailed, grounded and romantic. The book is a huge best-seller in Europe, but has only been released in the United States this week.

Maria and I went for a walk in the woods this morning, and I am already seeing the forest in a new and exciting way. I’ll be posting about the book as I go through it.