Overview
This book tells the story of a single tree, from the moment the seed is released from a cone until, more than five hundred years later, the tree lies on the forest floor as a nurse log, giving life to ferns, mosses, and hemlocks, even as its own life is ending.Any tree's life is precarious. Wherever the seed lands when it is released, its fate is sealed. From that one spot, the tree must deal with predation by insects, birds, or mammals, withering drought, violent storms, and other assaults, as well a find food and water. Tree explores the many amazing mechanisms by which the tree is able to thrive for hundreds of years while remaining rooted to one spot.
The book also looks at the tree's rich and complex relationships with other organisms in its community, from fungi and lichen to other trees to pileated woodpeckers, spotted owls, cougars, grizzly bears, and salmon, among many others. In addition, the book shows how a humble tree connects us to the atmosphere, the underworld of soil, and the world's oceans, as well as linking us all the way back to the origins of the universe and life and far into the future. Finally, the authors place their tree within the context of the growth of botany and events going on in the larger world during one tree's lifetime. David Suzuki and Wayne Grady's magical, richly detailed text is augmented by Robert Bateman's evocative original art. The result is a revelation, a salute to life itself.
Synopsis
"Only God can make a tree," wrote Joyce Kilmer in one of the most celebrated of poems. In Tree: A Life Story, authors David Suzuki and Wayne Grady extend that celebration in a "biography" of this extraordinary — and extraordinarily important — organism. A story that spans a millennium and includes a cast of millions but focuses on a single tree, a Douglas fir, Tree describes in poetic detail the organism's modest origins that begin with a dramatic burst of millions of microscopic grains of pollen. The authors recount the amazing characteristics of the species, how they reproduce and how they receive from and offer nourishment to generations of other plants and animals. The tree's pivotal role in making life possible for the creatures around it — including human beings — is lovingly explored. The richly detailed text and Robert Bateman's original art pay tribute to this ubiquitous organism that is too often taken for granted.