The article links this battlefield to the historical accounts of the “Battle of Teutoberg Forest” in the year 9 AD, in which three Roman legions suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of Germanic troops.

Using the examples of matsutake mushrooms in Japan, the Meratus Dayaks of the rainforests of Kalimantan, and the “rubble ecologies” of post-war Berlin, the article argues that we must pay attention to the cultural and biological synergies through which diversity continues to emerge, even in ruins.