The Tree

The Tree Colin Tudge 469 pp.

Colin Tudge’s The Tree is clearly the labor of one man’s love for the towering spires of wood which dominate the the skyline of much of the world. Tudge follows a system of taxonomy through the book tracing the development of trees from their primeval roots up to the modern day. His chapters are arranged in such a way as to give the reader a thorough understanding of the way trees work, and how they have adapted to thrive on almost every landmass around the world.

I’ll get a disclaimer out of the way early-I love trees too. At one point in my life I considered a career in botany, and this book was a welcome addition to my shelf. It would be difficult to read The Tree without feeling urges in exactly the same direction. 

If I had to pick a flaw in this book, a daunting task to be sure, it is that The Tree is magnificently painful if you don’t know anyone else who has read it. While Tudge does not slip into giving a classification system, allowing one to identify the trees native to your area, his writing neatly presents the larger relationships between groups of trees up the phylogenetic tree. Armed with such a knowledge, walking along a shaded pathway becomes an exercise in seeing the whole world.

The juniper in your front yard? By itself it provides shade, color, and a pleasant aroma. But after reading The Tree, you will be unable to help yourself from seeing the towering sequoias to whom it is so closely related. In the stunted, weather-beaten shrubs which line railroad tracks across the countryside, you will see the immensely ancient bristlecone pines of the Sierra Nevada. The joyous reverie of seeing these trees is not limited to their relations with other trees, after reading Tudge’s explanation of the methods and scale by which a towering spire of maple pulls water from the ground, sit underneath one sometime and just ponder the sheer volume of water moving past you.

In fact, go do that right now. Stop reading this review, pick up a good book, go sit under a tree, and read it. Even if that book is not The Tree, you won’t regret it.

Would I recommend The Tree? Yes, without the slightest hesitation.

Score: 4.8/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Absolutely yes.

-Mr. Cheddar