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

Tudge, Colin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400050367 ISBN 13: 9781400050369

Publisher: Crown, 2006

Synopsis

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. There are Douglas firs as tall as skyscrapers, and a banyan tree in Calcutta as big as a football field.

From the tallest to the smallest, trees inspire wonder in all of us, and in The Tree, Colin Tudge travels around the world—throughout the United States, 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 (and they do), and why they came to exist in the first place. He considers the pitfalls of being tall; the things that trees produce, from nuts and rubber to wood; and even the complicated debt that we as humans owe them.

Tudge takes us to the Amazon in flood, when the water is deep enough to submerge the forest entirely and fish feed on fruit while river dolphins race through the canopy. He explains the “memory” of a tree: how those that have been shaken by wind grow thicker and sturdier, while those attacked by pests grow smaller leaves the following year; and reveals how it is that the same trees found in the United States are also native to China (but not Europe).

From tiny saplings to centuries-old redwoods and desert palms, from the backyards of the American heartland to the rain forests of the Amazon and the bamboo forests, Colin Tudge takes the reader on a journey through history and illuminates our ever-present but often ignored companions. A blend of history, science, philosophy, and environmentalism, The Tree is an engaging and elegant look at the life of the tree and what modern research tells us about their future.

About this title

About the Author

Colin Tudge started his first tree nursery in his garden at the age of eleven. Always interested in plants and animals, he studied zoology at Cambridge and then began writing about science, first as features editor at the New Scientist and then as a documentary filmmaker for the BBC. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and advisor to several farming and environmental groups. Tudge’s books include The Variety of Life and So Shall We Reap. After traveling the world in search of a deeper understanding of the tree, Tudge is unable to choose a favorite, believing that variety’s the thing. He lives in Oxford, England.

Reviews

In an elegant tribute to denizens of nature that humans too often take for granted, British biologist Tudge (The Famine Business) presents a wealth of intriguing facts about trees. Basing his information on science and writing "in a spirit of reverence," he explains how biologists identify the different kinds of trees; how trees have evolved over millions of years; how they adapt to their habitats, survive and reproduce. Describing a multitude of species, Tudge emphasizes the distinctive characteristics of each. He marvels, for example, at banyans with their roots hanging down from their branches, palms whose roots grow directly from their trunks, mangroves standing with their roots in the sea, baobabs holding so much water in their swollen trunks that they are extremely resistant to drought, figs in partnership with the minute wasps that pollinate them—"one dedicated species of wasp for each of the 750 species of fig." Tudge concludes with a chapter emphasizing the importance of all types of trees for humankind's well-being—a persuasive call to action for the preservation of the environment so that trees, and humans, can survive. 33 exquisite line drawings. (Oct.)
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*Starred Review* British biologist and science-writer-extraordinaire Tudge offers a sumptuously specific tour of the phenomenal world of trees. Earth's longest-lived sentinels, trees serve as the planet's lungs, organic metropolises for wildly diverse species, and the source of food, medicine, our most versatile building material, and a large quotient of nature's most majestic beauty. After tracking the slow evolution of plant life from "metabolizing slime" to trees attaining gravity-defying heights, Tudge declares that trees are engineering marvels and that "wood is one of the wonders of the universe." He is equally in awe over the astonishing variety of forms trees achieve around the globe, and precisely describes them, from oaks to baobabs to the mighty kauri. "Without trees, our species would not have come into being at all," declares Tudge, and now in this time of global warming, trees are key to our survival. Tudge's explanation of how climate change will endanger trees is invaluable. Along with Wangari Maathai, founder of Kenya's Green Belt Movement (see Unbowed, p.29), Tudge shares knowledge and issues a call to action in this indispensable celebration of one of our most precious natural resources. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1400050367
• ISBN 13: 9781400050369
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480