|
The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter Posters
Photos Art
Search for Posters Art Prints, photos and get
results from all the many categories from Amazon including
books, videos, dvds, toys, video games, and more.
|
|
|
Posters Art
Prints Photos collectables |
|
|
|
|
|
|
If for some reason you can't find what the
poster or art print your looking for try using the search boxes
below
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
List Price: $15.95Amazon.com's Price: $10.85 You Save: $5.10 (32%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Now!
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 582.16
EAN: 9780307395399
ISBN: 0307395391
Label: Three Rivers Press
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: October 23, 2007
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Release Date: October 23, 2007
Sales Rank: 57258
Studio: Three Rivers Press
Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Honestly I vascillated between 4 and 5 stars for this book, settling on 5 starts because it is so thorough. However, there are places where it reads like a text and would be difficult for the average reader to follow. However, with that said, I first can tell you that I doubt any loves trees as much as Colin Tudge. The breadth and depth of his knowledge is impeccable and his writing is almost like a love letter to nature. Except for those scientific places I mentioned earlier this is one of those ... Read More
Rating: -
As a nature writer myself, I'm always thrilled to come upon another writer in the genre, one new to me, whose work has the same effect on me as a plunge in a mountain stream. It washes the cobwebs out of my brain, leaves me feeling small and humble, and opens up new avenues of thinking. Colin Tudge's masterful, concise, and grandly entertaining book on trees is this kind of book. The marvel of it for me is how Tudge can take so much hard science and make it riveting. I have no doubt that Tudge is one ... Read More
Rating: -
Here Colin Tudge packs into one volume enough information on trees to fill several dozen field guides and botany textbooks, all within an accessible natural history. It's a very ambitious endeavor that mostly rewards the reader handsomely, notwithstanding some readability issues raised by that very same wealth of knowledge. Tudge starts the book by asking "What is a Tree?" and the answer is far more complex and enlightening than even lifetime tree lovers would expect. But when Tudge moves into descriptions ... Read More
Rating: -
...but only an environment can make a tree. The necessary adaptation of plants to their environment, which makes some of them shape themselves as trees, is one of Colin Tudge's central points in this immense study of the evolutionary history of trees, of their fantastically complicated taxonomy, of their "life styles" as stationary but highly active organisms, and of their place in a world increasingly managed by a species of primate whose origins were arboreal.
As other reviewers have noted, The ... Read More
Rating:  -
This is a stiff-necked book about trees. It is in 3 parts. The first, long part is a tedious taxonomy of the major trees in the world. The second, shorter part is a delightful description of the "social life" of trees. The third, shortest part is a half-baked elegiac essay about the future of trees and of humanity.
The first part would be of interest mostly to grim graduate students. The chapter on the social life of trees--the interaction of trees with plants, animals, and insects--is wonderful. In ... Read More
|
