Around the World in 80 Trees

Jonathan Drori has created an irresistible book for tree lovers. In 80 short pieces (a page or two eacn), he illuminates the history, culture (and more) of trees from all over the world, exotic and ordinary (and thankfully he doesn't feel the need to give them human qualities). The illustrations are lovely and add to the tone of the book. I love to pick this book up at some odd moment and read an entry randomly; Dutch elm, the Horse chestnut, the European box (I never really thought about the wood and oboe is made from), Neem, Quinine, Banyan, Linden, Weeping Willow (mentioned in Psalm 137)… and my local nemesis, the Quaking Aspen. It’s not exhaustive (what, no entry for Sassafras?), but I forgive the author.

I love this book. show more I’ve bought 4 or 5 copies—gifts to fellow tree-lovers in my life. I don’t think I will ever be officially "done" with this book (I'm reading about the Upas tree now), so I thought it best to tell you about it sooner rather than later. show less

Trees are one of humanity’s most constant and most varied companions. From India’s sacred banyan tree to the fragrant cedar of Lebanon, they offer us sanctuary and inspiration – not to mention the raw materials for everything from aspirin to maple syrup.
In Around the World in 80 Trees, expert Jonathan Drori uses plant science to illuminate how trees play a role in every part of human life, from the romantic to the regrettable. Stops on the trip include the lime trees of Berlin’s Unter den Linden boulevard, which intoxicate amorous Germans and hungry bees alike, the swankiest streets in nineteenth-century London, which were paved with Australian eucalyptus wood, and the redwood forests of California, where the secret to the show more trees’ soaring heights can be found in the properties of the tiniest drops of water.

Each of these strange and true tales – populated by self-mummifying monks, tree-climbing goats and ever-so-slightly radioactive nuts – is illustrated by Lucille Clerc, taking the reader on a journey that is as informative as it is beautiful. show less

Trees are gifts. Just figure out what their special features are, and you can keep the gifts coming. The gifts can be as simple as shade, as complex as medicine, as practical as boards and posts or as supportive as fruits and nuts. And that’s just for humans. In Around the World in 80 Trees, Jonathan Drori demonstrates a true passion and appreciation of those gifts, as he describes 80 of them by geographical region. He describes the, what’s unique about how they work and stories of how they fit in.

The text is accompanied by exquisite color drawings by Lucille Clerc which are far superior to photographs. They highlight what Drori writes about in closeups of seeds or fruits in various stages, roots, canopies or trunks. For boxwoods, show more there is a complex French garden. For alders, there is Venice. Drori uses both sides of the page, differently for every tree, giving the layout nice variety.

There are trees so dense they sink rather than float, trees that only grow in saltwater-soaking sands, and trees that hold their seeds tightly sealed in wax until there is a forest fire below them. One tree holds its seeds in pods that explode with such violence the seeds fly off at 150 mph (the sandbox, Costa Rica).

Some to remember:

Linden trees are limes. Aphids live in them and drop honeydew on the ground – or on parked cars, leaving that famous sticky mess. It’s not the tree’s doing. Bees get drunk on the blossoms, and can often be seen stumbling around on the ground beneath them. People don’t act quite as badly, but are still smitten (with each other) in spring by the fragrance of the blossoms.

The argan of the Mediterranean has a fruit so tempting to goats that they climb up the trees and out onto the branches to get at it. The oil from it is used in creams, cosmetics and cooking, giving employment to about three million – people.

Nordic spruce grows so slowly its rings are tiny, giving the wood great strength while remaining light. That is why they are used in violins, cellos and basses (notably Stradivarius). Their solidity produces the best vibrations, aka sound. The wood is so dense it takes 10-50 years for the wood to dry. The longer you can wait, the better the sound will be.

Alder is waterproof when totally submerged. Venice is built on it: thousands of poles, carved to a point and driven into the mud. Its charcoal makes the best gunpowder, sending balls faster harder and farther. It even burns hotter, enabling ironworks.

Beech trees can survive lightning strikes because water runs down their smooth bark onto the ground. Unusually, the bark expands as the tree grows, keeping the surface smooth. On most other trees, the bark splits as the tree grows, allowing water and insects to invade the interior.

Coco-de-Mer is native to the Seychelles only. Its coconut weighs 65 pounds, the heaviest seed there is. Imagine a bag of cement falling from the top of a tree. After it rots, the seed sends out roots 15 feet away so as not to interfere with the mother tree.

The gutta-percha tree of Borneo turned out to have latex inside the trunk and the leaves that could be a sealant. Werner von Siemens invented a process to coat transoceanic cables with it and prevent the salt water from destroying the copper wires inside. He produced a quarter million miles of cable for telegraph systems.

Mangrove trees are unique in that their seeds germinate and grow roots while still growing on the tree. They fall like darts and anchor themselves in the sand, firmly enough to withstand tides. The tree is a desalination plant, purifying the salt water as it is sucked up towards the leaves by the sun evaporating moisture from them. They can live only in the narrow band of territory between the mean sea level and high tide, and so are threatened by rising seas.

The giant redwoods of California grow to what turns out to be theoretical maximum height for trees – 400 feet. Any taller and gravity would overtake water’s cohesion properties and the crown of the tree would dry up, killing the tree.

You can read Around the World in 80 Trees as a reference book, looking up trees you’ve heard about or what is native to different countries. Or, you can read it as a regular book, and the astounding variety of strategies that plants took on fairly jump off the page. From having pollinators tunnel through fruit to spikes and spines and various poisons in the bark and leaves, trees are far more varied beings than we give them credit for.

One word of advice, do not get the Kindle version. The few drawings that made into that format have been reduced to thumbnails to fit the small screen. You miss fully half the book. Stick to paper – a gift from trees.

David Wineberg show less

For my 80th Birthday, my daughter gave me 8 non-fiction books with 8, 80, or EIGHTY in the titles.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 TREES is the last one I've read and the most fascinating and inspiring.

From Jules Verne's London with the London Plane through the Durian where an LT friend lives in Malaysia
and ending with The Sugar Maple, so many beautiful studies and evocative illustrations!

What a treasure for anyone who loves trees...

The Strawberry Tree, Silver Birch, White Willow, Rowan, Norway Spruce, Elm, Alder(!),
Horse and Sweet Chestnuts, Argan (goats), Quince, Date Palm, Cedar of Lebanon, Olive Tree (to Israel and Palestine),
Kapok (amazing), Baobab, Wild Apple, Dahurian Larch, NEEM, Durian, Blue Quandong, Jarrah (Nyungar culture),
Wollemi show more Pine, KOA, Blue Jacaranda, Quinine, Balsa, Coastal Redwood...

((Does not spare readers from the Horrifying human exploitation and destruction of trees, forests, animals, and human cultures.)) show less

You know trees are alive. But do you think of them as living beings? With individuality? And needs?

You will after reading this book.

Author Jonathan Drori, an Ambassador for the WWF and Trustee of the Eden Project, accompanied by illustrator Lucille Clere, takes us on a trip through trees around the world. He visits with trees I know well, like the Elm and the Lodgepole Pine and the Baobob and the Date Palm, but he adds stories and details about the familiar that are surprising and unexpected. He also makes stops with trees I knew little about including the Brazil Nut and the Neem and the Coco-de-mer and makes me add these to my list of favorite trees. Drori is a former documentary film maker for the BBC. I hope someone will make this show more into a documentary.

I know that not everyone is as enamored of trees as I am (yes, I even have a Goodreads tag of trees), but even if you don't think you are, you still might enjoy this book; I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't.

#2020ReadNonFic show less

De schitterende uitvoering, de precieze tekeningen van de bomen vallen het eerst op. Start in Engeland, verplaats je door Europa en vaar via Afrika naar Azië, doe Oceanië aan en vervolgens van Zuid- naar Noord-Amerika en je komt de bomen tegen in detail, vaak het gebruik ervan en niet zelden de sociale geschiedenis.
Ik had dit boek ook gekocht om bomen van buiten de gematigde klimaatzone te leren kennen. Er staan er veel in. Ik heb het boek in vele fases gelezen, elke keer een etappe met zo drie of vier bomen als bakens. Nu het uit is houd ik het bij de hand, om feitjes terug te zoeken, om nog eens te genieten van de illustraties.

- Wist je dat er bomen waren die meerdere luchtwortels maken aan hun takken naar beneden, die vervolgens show more wortelen en zelf een stam worden. Zo ontstaat er van een boom een bosje waar de hele dorpsgemeenschap bijeen kan komen of die als heilige plaats wordt gezien.
- Wist je dat wierook van een boom kwam?
- Wist je dat er een boom was die melksap produceert dat eerst voor golfballen en later als isolatie voor telegraafdraden gebruikt werd? (Guttaperchaboom - ik had er ook nooit van gehoord)
- Wist je dat het brood van de Tahitianen in bomen groeide en die vruchten nog steeds op de Jamaicaanse barbecues worden geroosterd?
- Wist je dat sommige bomen een sturende rol hebben gespeeld in de geschiedenis?
- Wist je dat Venetië gebouwd was op stammen van de zwarte els?

Nieuwsgierig geworden? Dan kun net als ik je hart ophalen in dit boek.

blurber: 'De mooiste liefdesbrief aan bomen die ik ooit heb gezien.'- Sir Tim Smith

The beautiful version/execution/lay out, the precise drawings of the trees are the first to stand out. Start in England, travel through Europe and sail via Africa to Asia, call at Oceania and then from South to North America and you will encounter the trees in detail, often their use and not seldom their social history.
I also bought this book to get to know trees from outside the temperate climate zone. There are many. I've read the book in many stages, each one with three or four trees as beacons. Now that it's out, I keep it at hand, to look back facts, to enjoy the illustrations again.

- Did you know that there were trees that make multiple aerial roots on their branches down, which then take root and become a trunk themselves. In this way, a tree becomes a bush where the whole village community can gather or which is seen as a sacred place.
- Did you know that incense came from a tree?
- Did you know that there was a tree that produces milk sap that was first used for golf balls and later as insulation for telegraph wires? (Guttapha tree - I had never heard of it either)
- Did you know that the bread of the Tahitians grew in trees and those fruits are still toasted on the Jamaican barbecues?
- Did you know that some trees have played a guiding role in history?
- Did you know that Venice was built on trunks of black alder?

Did you become curious? Then, like me, you can have a great time in this book.

blurber: 'The most beautiful love letter to trees I've ever seen' - Sir Tim Smith

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) show less

This is just a beautiful book, in both the text and illustration, but also the physical book itself. This is a piece of art, with solid boards and wonderful, thick pages.
You can just tell that this was written by a person who loves the subject. Mr. Drori conveys his love of trees through a single page of dialogue that passes on the wonder of the natural world. A page of text and then a page or two of fabulous artwork.
This is a book to leaf through whenever you need a quick escape from the grind of life. You will be proud to have it on your bookshelf.