Ferns Lessons in Survival From Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants

by Li, Fay-Wei; Suissa, Jacob S.

• ISBN13: 9781958417850
• ISBN10: 1958417858
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-05-06
• Publisher: Hardie Grant Books

Summary

Welcome to the extraordinary world of ferns – plants that have survived since prehistoric times!

Ferns are the most remarkable of plants, both complex and beautiful. Among Earth's most ancient plants, their story reveals much about our planet's history. Ferns embarks on an exhilarating 400-million-year journey through the world of these astounding plants. It explores how ferns first evolved, how they continuously adapted to their environment and survived every mass extinction, how they enrich human life but can also be fatal, and what their evolutionary history can tell us about our own planet.

Written by scientists with a passion for communicating with the widest audiences and illustrated with jewel-like details by an award-winning botanical artist, Ferns has much to say about our planet's botanical past, present, and future. This beautiful coffee table book is the perfect gift for fern enthusiasts and gardeners alike.

Author Biography

Fay-Wei Li grew up in Taiwan and studied for his Ph.D. at Duke University, where he and his advisor, Kathleen Pryer named a new fern genus Gaga after Lady Gaga. In 2017, Fay-Wei joined Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University as an assistant professor. His fern research has featured in the New York Times,  the Economist, and Rolling Stone magazine.

Jacob S. Suissa completed his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. As a classically trained botanist and evolutionary biologist, Jacob asks how plants build their bodies, how they function, and how they have evolved across geologic time, with a focus on ferns. Jacob runs the science communication video series, Let's Botanize, which had 13,000 followers on TikTok.