The Genius of Trees (Paperback)

Harriet Rix

ISBN 10: 1847927831 / ISBN 13: 9781847927835

Verlag: Vintage Publishing, London, 2025

Paperback. A mesmerising, mind-expanding global story which shows how trees have learned to use the soil, air, water, plants, fungi, fire, animals and people around them to shape our world - possessing agency beyond anything we might have imagined.The Genius of Trees tells a mind-expanding global story revealing the inventive and astonishing ways trees learned to shape our natural world.Over hundreds of millions of years, from prehistoric forests to the trees around us today, we see trees using fire as a reproductive tool, harnessing large mammals to spread their seeds (but poisoning smaller, less useful mammals), and splitting rock to create fertile ground in barren landscapes.Because trees, we discover, manipulate fundamental elements, plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, and even humankind to achieve their ends. From the laurel cloud-forests of the Canary Islands to the magnificent sex-shifting oaks of Iraq, from the giant sequoias of California to the carbon-spinning junipers of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border - trees sculpt their environments.At once transporting and expert, this profoundly original exploration of the science of trees is a startlingly new way of understanding these glories of our natural world.The Genius of Trees gives us hope for the future. It enables us to see trees, for the first time, not as victims but as agents of change in a grand ecological narrative - and as leading actors in the great drama of life on earth. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 9781847927835

Inhaltsangabe:

‘Wondrous. Gives us trees as we've never seen them before’ ISABELLA TREE, author of Wilding

'If I was dazzled by nature and in awe of trees before, I now know how much we are indebted to them’ KIRSTY WARK

The Genius of Trees tells the mind-expanding story of the inventive and astonishing ways trees learned to shape our natural world.

Over hundreds of millions of years, from prehistoric forests to the trees around us today, we see trees using fire as a reproductive tool, harnessing large mammals to spread their seeds (but poisoning smaller, less useful mammals), and splitting rock to create fertile ground in barren landscapes.

Because trees, we discover, manipulate fundamental elements, plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, and even humankind to achieve their ends. From the laurel cloud-forests of the Canary Islands to the magnificent sex-shifting oaks of Iraq, from the giant sequoias of California to the carbon-spinning junipers of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border – trees sculpt their environments.

At once transporting and expert, The Genius of Trees gives us hope for the future. It enables us to see trees, for the first time, not as victims but as agents of change in a grand ecological narrative – and as leading actors in the great drama of life on earth.

'Sublime ... It is a true masterpiece' DAILY TELEGRAPH, 5 Stars
'Mind-blowing' GUARDIAN
‘Exceptional’ ROBIN LANE FOX, Financial Times Gardening Columnist
'Full of wonder and revelation ... Highly recommended' SUE STUART-SMITH, author of The Well Gardened Mind

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor:

Harriet Rix is a tree science consultant and writer. She was formerly based at the Tree Council where she supported Defra in researching tree diseases and urban tree strategies. Before joining the tree sector, she worked in landmine clearance in the Middle East. She acted as scientific advisor on Adrian Grenier's climate documentary, was secretary of Hedgelink and is trustee of the Iraqi environmental charity Hasar.


Rix holds a biochemistry degree from the University of Oxford and an MPhil in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. She was a London Library Emerging Writer, and her writing and photography has been published in the Financial Times, London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and more. The Genius of Trees is her first book.

Bibliografische Details

Titel: The Genius of Trees (Paperback)
Verlag: Vintage Publishing, London
Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
Einband: Paperback
Zustand: new