Illustrated Trees of Britain and Northern Europe

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These lumbering giants even have senses – they hear, see, taste….. just not like we do. Perhaps we, as humanity, should respect these ancient giants – they’ve been around for as long as life itself. I love the message behind the work even if it defeats itself in the final chapter when it states that trees are a commodity. We should respect them, but use them still. And this is an idea I don't like. It needs to be more than respect and cultivation but a way of coexisting and making our urban spaces more green and natural.

This is an extremely emotive book and it does wonders at humanising trees and making them seem ever more real, fascinating and valuable. It is also a book that manages to talk about trees for much longer than you would have ever thought possible. A useful book that covers all the most common trees and some rarities that are sold from nurseries and garden centres in the UK and also includes information about cultivation and size.

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Das Kommunikationsnetzwerk von Pflanzen und insbesondere Bäumen ist hochkomplex. Solitäre oder nur jährlich wachsende Pflanzen kommen an die Diffizilität des Grundstoffs für die Papierherstellung nicht heran. Durch ihr Wurzelwerk und ihre Größe sind Bäume für eine Schlüsselstellung prädestiniert. Sie kommunizieren mittels Duftstoffen miteinander und warnen einander vor Schädlingen. Das veranlasst die Gewarnten, chemische Stoffe zur Abwehr zu produzieren. Wenn ein menschliches Rodungstrupp naht, ist das aber verlorene Liebesmüh. So I couldn’t resist reading this after watching a fascinating PBS program called What Plants Talk About. Who knew there really is a “wood wide web” in which trees, shrubs, and grasses exchange information. My hippie friends apparently did—it wasn’t the THC after all! An organism that is too greedy and takes too much without giving anything in return destroys what it needs for life.”

Mimosas are tropical creeping herbs. They make particularly good research subjects, because it is easy to get them a bit riled up and they are easier to study in the laboratory than trees are. When they are touched, they close their feathery little leaves to protect themselves. Gagliano designed an experiment where individual drops of water fell on the plants’ foliage at regular intervals. At first, the anxious leaves closed immediately, but after a while, the little plants learned there was no danger of damage from the water droplets. After that, the leaves remained open despite the drops. Even more surprising for Gagliano was the fact that the mimosas could remember and apply their lesson weeks later, even without further tests. What was so frustrating that I abandoned the book before the end was the form his enthusiasm was communicated in. Wohlleben is like an old man in the pub, very eager to tell you about his particular area of interest, but does so in short anecdotes - little factoids that he thinks are cool. And they are! But they always leave you wanting more. Each chapter is frustratingly short, just developing a subject enough in a hand-wavy way before moving on to another. The book gives you intellectual whiplash with constant stops and starts.

Leaf buds and twigs

Did I say society? Yes, trees communicate with each other, nurture their young, and aid the ill when disease or distress strikes. Does this sound unlikely? Well, it sounded a bit over-the-top to me, until I started reading this book. Forests are superorganisms that exchange nutrients through inter-connected root systems. They are a bit analogous to ant colonies. Wohlleben cites evidence of a 400 year-old beech tree that was actually being kept alive by neighboring beech trees!