Today trees need people to survive, and people have always needed trees.   

     Diana Wells, author of the new book Lives of the Trees:  An Uncommon History, challenges us humans to find any spot that is more than two feet from something related to a tree.  Whether it’s kleenex, car tires, an apple, a walnut, or a wooden wall or floor, the ‘products’ of trees are everywhere in our lives. 

     Lives of the Trees is a compendium of what trees have meant to people throughout the history of human culture, and how trees protect the planet.  Wells reminds us that trees have been used for food, shelter, and medicine, to make weapons, musical instruments, and ships.  People make pilgrimages to feast their eyes on trees’ autumn glory, and we seek comfort in their presence. 

     The book is divided into 100 short chapters, each focused on a different tree species.  Wells clearly loves trees, and she hopes that readers will be inspired to get to know the trees growing around them.  She laments the fact that many people today pay little attention to to the trees of their area, and know little about them, even their names.  Wells believes our lives will be richer if we get to know the trees that support our lives in so many ways.

     Here are some facts about just a few of the trees Wells includes in her book: 

Alder was widely used in the construction of ships, since it withstands water so well.  Alder underlies much of the building construction in Venice, helping that watery city to survive.

Birch has many uses.  Its nuts are edible, its sap can be made into beer, and its bark was used to make canoes and huts.  The bark is such a good writing surface and so water-resistant that Thomas Jefferson deemed it the best material for jotting his field notes. 

Cinchona is the source of the first antimalarial drug–quinine.  If the cinchona bark’s antimalarial properties hadn’t been discovered, history might have been quite different.  It was only after people knew how to avoid the worst effects of malaria that white Europeans were able to exploit human and natural resources in African countries.

Pomegranate is also known as the tree of life.  New brides would throw a pomegranate on their doorstep to ensure their marriage would produce many children.  Ironically, the hand grenade derives its name from the pomegranate as well, because of its pomegranate-like appearance.

     Wells says her book is not for botanists or dendrologists, but for those who love trees, who find them interesting and would like to get to know them better.–April Moore

a cinchona tree–photo by Erica Kipp

 

  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 9:49 am and is filed under Insights and Visions on the State of the Earth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.