Ferns: Lessons in Survival From Earth's Most Adaptable Plants

by Fay-Wei Li, Jacob S. Suissa

Overview

Ferns are the most remarkable of plants, and their science is both complex and beautiful. Among our most ancient plants, they have a unique way of reproducing, and their story reveals much about our planet's evolution. Ferns tells a remarkable science story by tracing their origins to over 350 million years ago. It explores how ferns migrated from seat to land, how they sought light and interacted within ecosystems, how they survived mass extinctions, and what their ability to adapt can tell us about our warming Earth. 

Written by scientists with a passion for communicating impactful research that commands media and social media attention, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781958417867
Publisher:	Hardie Grant North America
Publication date:	08/04/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192

About the Author

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 has 166k followers on Instagram and 57k followers on TikTok.