"As long as our species does not destroy the planet beyond repair, ferns will likely continue to thrive, as diverse as ever, unfurling in every odd corner of Earth."

Ferns are absolutely fascinating and deeply misunderstood & underestimated. The way they work seems alien and strange, but in reality is ancient & foundational to the world as we know it.

This book is a little denser and a touch drier than many of the other books on the plants quest, but the frank critique of colonialism, sarcastic dry humor, and absolutely stacked Fern Facts™️ completely won me over. I had a great time with this, as evidenced by my husband now knowing far more about ferns than he ever wanted to.

Ferns have the most chromosomes of any organism on Earth that we know of. There is a fern species native to my area that tastes 60 times sweeter than simple syrup despite containing no sugar. Some ferns produce a chemical that causes a chemical reaction in the stomachs of their predators that burns holes through their guts. There are ferns that grow habitats inside of themselves to house ants, and others that produce nectar so that ants will protect them. Ferns are seedless and flowerless. And so much more!

There are also gorgeous illustrations by Laura Silburn! My minor critiques are that sometimes the illustrations dont relate to the text, making them kind of random even tho interesting, and that near the end we get just a tiny bit repetitive with a couple of things. Definitely not a big deal, but noticeable.

If wanna learn more about ferns this is a great place to start!

I'm going to withhold a star rating for now. I definitely need to re-read this with my eyeballs. The audiobook narration was quite good, but I think the non-linear and general nature of the book would be better digested, for me, as an eyeball read. A tandem read might also be helpful, as the narrator did emphasize things slightly differently depending on which part of the timeline the passage is in.

The prose is quite striking, the atmosphere strong - but I wasn't able to track nuance in the midst of the jumping timelines, so I'll try to revisit this again in the future!