Twelve trees : the deep roots of our future / Daniel Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, Daniel, 1959- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Trees--Climatic factors.

Trees.

Trees--Ecophysiology.

Climatic changes.

climate change.

Physical Description:

xvi, 279 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition.

Other Title:

12 trees

Deep roots of our future

Place of Publication:

New York : Avid Reader Press, 2024.

Summary:

A compelling global exploration of nature and survival as seen via a dozen species of trees that represent the challenges facing our planet, and the ways that scientists are working urgently to save our forests and our future. The world today is undergoing the most rapid environmental transformation in human history--from climate change to deforestation. Scientists, ethnobotanists, indigenous peoples, and collectives of all kinds are closely studying trees and their biology to understand how and why trees function individually and collectively in the ways they do. In Twelve Trees, Daniel Lewis, curator and historian at one of the world's most renowned research libraries, travels the world to learn about these trees in their habitats. Lewis takes us on a sweeping journey to plant breeding labs, botanical gardens, research facilities, deep inside museum collections, to the tops of tall trees, underwater, and around the Earth, journeying into the deserts of the American west and the deep jungles of Peru, to offer a globe-spanning perspective on the crucial impact trees have on our entire planet. When a once-common tree goes extinct in the wild but survives in a botanical garden, what happens next? How can scientists reconstruct lost genomes and habitats? How does a tree store thousands of gallons of water, or offer up perfectly preserved insects from millions of years ago, or root itself in muddy swamps and remain standing? How does a 5,000-year-old tree manage to live, and what can we learn from it? And how can science account for the survival of one species at the expense of others? To study the science of trees is to study not just the present, but the story of the world, its past, and its future.

Contents:

A book older than God: the great basin bristlecone pine

Awesome matters: the coast redwood

Earth work: the nearly lost tree of Rapa Nui

Finding time: amber, insects, and a fossil tree

Understory alliance: the longleaf pine and its fiery partners

Making folk medicine modern: the road of the east Indian sandalwood tree

A lawful lot of wood: central African forest ebony

Belonging and beyond: the blue gum eucalyptus

Slippery slopes: the olive tree and its fruit and oil

Elephantine: the African baobab

Waterlogged: the bald cypress and the wonders of wetlands

Tall stories: the mighty ceiba tree

Afterword: in praise of recording, reporting, and remembering.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-267) and index.

ISBN:

9781982164058

1982164050

OCLC:

1384410820

Publisher Number:

99996544540