Remarkable Trees of the WorldA landmark volume celebrating the most remarkable trees on our planet. The Spirit of nineteenth-century exploration lives in British historian Thomas Pakenham, who has spent the last decade investigating the lives of the world's most dramatic trees, many of which are in danger of destruction. After the worldwide success of his previous work, Meetings with Remarkable Trees -- a stunning collection of 60 individual trees (and groups of trees) in Britain and Ireland chosen for their unusually strong personalities -- Pakenham decided to hunt down and photograph another 60 remarkable trees scattered throughout the globe. Many of these trees were already famous -- champions by girth, height, volume, or age -- while others had never previously been caught by the camera. Pakenham's five-year odyssey, sweating it out with a 30-pound Linhof camera and tripod, took him to most of the temperate and many of the tropical regions of the world. Although North American trees dominate this book, Pakenham also trekked to remote regions in Mexico, all over Europe, parts of Asia including Japan, northern and southern Africa. Madagascar, Australia, and New Zealand. Despite his expert knowledge, the book owes little to conventional botany. Like its predecessor, Remarkable Trees of the World is arranged according to the characters of the trees themselves. There are Giants and Dwarfs, Methliselahs, Shrines, Dreams, Lovers and Dancers, Ghosts, and Trees in Peril. The chief Giant is General Sherman in the Sierra Nevada, California At over 1400 tons, the grizzled old general, a giant sequoia, is the world's largest tree, measured by volume -- indeed, the largest single living thing in the world. The height record, however, goes to another commanding Californian, a 368-foot high Coast redwood recently declared the tallest tree in the world. Among the Methuselahs, Pakenham describes the wind-blasted bristlecone pines of the White Mountains of California. One of them, Old Methuselah himself, was found to be 4,600 years old, making him the oldest tree yet measured by scientists. Shrines include some of the holiest trees in the world, like the immense camphor trees preserved in Shinto shrines in Japan and the 2,200-year-old Bo-tree in Sri Lanka, a cutting from the actual tree under which Buddha found enlightenment. Trees in Peril are the trees under attack by predatory loggers and impoverished farmers, including the exotic baobabs of Madagascar, now threatened by intensive farming, and the great spruce and Douglas fir and red cedars of Pacific North America in whose defense the conservationists have been fighting the loggers for decades. Remarkable Trees of the World is a magnificent new work that celebrates Pakenham's gifts as a writer and a photographer. It will be treasured for generations by all those who marvel at the wonders of nature. |
Contents
Introduction | 6 |
GODDESSES | 24 |
Any Fool Can Climb a Gum Tree | 30 |
Nectar at the House of Representatives | 36 |
The Cedars They Turned into Totems | 42 |
At the Feet of the Emperor | 51 |
No Love Lost Between the Brothers | 57 |
IN BONDAGE | 66 |
PRISONERS | 116 |
A Line in Defence of the Governor | 122 |
Kneesup at Santorso | 128 |
When the Band Played in the Tree | 135 |
Where Angels Didnt Fear to Tread | 142 |
Two Serpents in the Garden | 148 |
Failing David Douglas | 154 |
The Girl Who Lay under the Banyans | 161 |
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD | 72 |
The Kvilleken and the Green Man | 78 |
Justice under the Oak | 84 |
First a Staff Then a Leaning Tower | 90 |
The Tree of the Great Healer | 98 |
Bowing Politely to the Camphor Trees | 105 |
Ashes to Ashes | 168 |
Lay My Bones at Nolan Creek | 174 |
The Elephant with Only One Foot | 180 |
Gazetteer | 186 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adansonia Africa ancient bald cypress baobabs bark beech biggest Bo tree Boab bonsai botanical garden botanists branches bristlecone pines bunya bunya Bussaco California camera camphor trees Carmanah century champion chapel climbed coast redwood conservationists Douglas fir dragon tree dwarfs elegant engraving Eucalyptus Europe famous feet high feet in girth Ficus fig tree French giant sequoias ginkgo green grove grow hollow huge Ireland Japan Japanese Jomon Sugi Joshua Tree karris kauri Kekova Khubu Island Kvilleken larch largest lime live oak loggers look Madagascar Methuselah miles Monterey cypress Montezuma cypress Morondava mountain ash old-growth forests oldest Opposite Orotava photograph planted Quercus Quinault rata red cedar Remarkable Trees roots Rotorua Sequoia National Park Shinto shrines Sierra Sitka spruce South south-west southern species Sri Lanka strangler stump survive tallest Tane Mahuta Te Matua Ngahere Toliara totara Trees in Peril trunk Tule twisted valley Verzy Washington wood Yosemite National Park Zealand