The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter-Fast Shipping

Description

A blend of history, science, philosophy,and environmentalism, The Tree is an engaging and elegant look at the life of thetree and what modern research tells us about their future.

There are redwoods in California that were ancient by the time Columbus first landed,and pines still alive that germinated around the time humans invented writing. Thereare Douglas firs as tall as skyscrapers, and a banyan tree in Calcutta as big asa football field.

From the tallest to the smallest, trees inspire wonder in allof us, and in The Tree, Colin Tudge travels around the world—throughout the UnitedStates, the Costa Rican rain forest, Panama and Brazil, India, New Zealand, China,and most of Europe—bringing to life stories and facts about the trees around us:how they grow old, how they eat and reproduce, how they talk to one another (andthey do), and why they came to exist in the first place. He considers the pitfallsof being tall; the things that trees produce, from nuts and rubber to wood; and eventhe complicated debt that we as humans owe them.

Tudge takes us to the Amazon inflood, when the water is deep enough to submerge the forest entirely and fish feedon fruit while river dolphins race through the canopy. He explains the “memory” ofa tree: how those that have been shaken by wind grow thicker and sturdier, whilethose attacked by pests grow smaller leaves the following year; and reveals how itis that the same trees found in the United States are also native to China (but notEurope).

From tiny saplings to centuries-old redwoods and desert palms, from thebackyards of the American heartland to the rain forests of the Amazon and the bambooforests, Colin Tudge takes the reader on a journey through history and illuminatesour ever-present but often ignored companions.