How to Read a Tree: The Sunday Times Bestseller

Product Information

All plants are sensitive to disturbance. If the land is ravaged by storms, fire, water, human clearance or heavy use, certain trees give up on it for long periods, while others are happy to start again as soon as the drama is over. The following families are keen colonisers, springing up in disturbed areas – if you see lots of young ones, it is a sign of a major disturbance: willows, alders, larches, birches, hawthorns. Rapid SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequencing and analysis for informed public health decision-making in the Netherlands. external icon To enhance the elegant pros, Tristan includes classic etchings of trees and their environs that added much to my understanding. Each tree we meet is filled with signs that reveal secrets about the life of that tree and the landscape we stand in. The clues are easy to spot when you know what to look for, but remain invisible to most people.

How to Read a Tree - The Natural Navigator

If you are even remotely interested in learning more about trees and how they shape our world, this book is absolutely unmissable. The sheer amount of information contained is staggering. The author passionately shares his knowledge in his wonderfully easy conversational tone full of heart and depth. Illustrations are excellent help, too. It was a lightbulb moment! I thought I knew my local woods – I walk there almost every day. But it’s a thrill to see it through fresh eyes, to develop a much deeper understanding.’– Peter Gibbs, Chair of BBC Gardeners’ Question Time Trees don’t form straight rows in natural environments. Even those that line a river will show curves that reflect the bends. It follows that any straight line of trees is a sign that humans are behind it. The most obvious are the formal avenues of trees leading to something grand at the end, but there are many more interesting examples. Gooley covers not just the endearing bits about trees (like why conifers don’t shed their leaves in winter) but the scientific details (like auxins and apical buds and epicormic sprouts) that will make you feel knowledgeable about this grandest of nature’s creatures. And then there are intriguing questions even I with my Masters and lifelong learner badge couldn’t answer:The London plane has been planted in towns and cities around the world because its roots tolerate compaction of the soil and its bark sheds regularly, allowing it to withstand more pollution than many. The sycamore is a member of the maple family that copes well with the stresses of town life, too well perhaps: it has a reputation for sprouting up uninvited in gardens and parks. The urban environment is tough for trees, with heavy footfall and motor traffic, but there are less obvious stresses too. It is warmer and drier than the surrounding area; there may be de-icing salt, dog mess and a long queue of people wanting to dig up the world.

How to Read a Tree by Tristan Gooley | Hachette UK How to Read a Tree by Tristan Gooley | Hachette UK

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher The Experiment for an advanced copy of this book about trees, their place in nature and what they bring to our souls. which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

I have read several of Tristan Gooley’s fascinating ‘how to read nature’ books. In fact one is open on my desk right now—The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs. All of Gooley’s books are chatty, readable explorations of nature for the armchair enthusiast. How to Read a Tree (2023) examines trees in the same relentless depth, digging into facets that sound obvious (like trunks and leaves) as well as those most of us don’t see but should (like the tree’s shape). Did you know that trees grow bigger on their southern side, or that a strong pale line down the middle of the leaves means there’s water nearby? Me either! Tristan not only noticed, but studied it with an enviable passion for understanding why, carried away by what goes on around him. All of these trees are pioneers, the hares, winning in the short run, but most will be gone within a century, having been replaced by the climax tortoises. This means they form a particular sort of map. They hint at motion and upheaval and tell us of a recent major change in the landscape. We should look for the cause. The entire book was a joy to read and both information dense and effortless/fun. There are moments of profundity throughout. Today's Justin Webb speaks to Tristan Gooley, author of How to Read a Tree: Clues & Patterns from Roots to Leaves. The Rise of Resistant Ringworm: Genomic Sequencing Confirms the First Two Reported U.S. Cases of Trichophyton indotineae

How to read a phylogenetic tree - artic.network How to read a phylogenetic tree - artic.network

You will never look at a tree in the same way again after reading this mesmerising book. Gooley drops learning as lightly as blossom falls in spring.’– John Lewis-Stempel Lombardy poplars are often planted in a line that marks the edge of a property, village or farm. They are so easy to recognise once you know them, standing taller than the other trees in the landscape, with thin branches that reach for the sky. With practice it becomes instinctive to spot their forms, and I regularly use them to identify the location of a hidden village. The Lombardy is a member of the water-loving poplar family, so it is often a double clue: civilisation next to water. In areas that are prone to wildfires, a different type of competition is taking place. No trees find fire easy, but some have evolved to endure it better than others and tend, over time, to out-compete the vulnerable. For example, the Douglas fir sees off most of the competition in the fire-prone regions of the Pacific Northwest. People have a fondness for trees and care when they're chopped down, but what can we learn about them?This book is highly recommended not just for tree lovers, but nature lovers who want to lose themselves in the scent and sights of the physical world. His down-to-earth voice and consummate respect for the topic puts this among the best nature writers and I’ve read many. I left this book wishing I could walk through a forest with Tristan Gooley and absorb his passion and love for this majestic part of nature.