Tree A Biography

Lyrical and richly detailed, with stunning illustrations by Canadian artist Robert Bateman, Tree tells the life story of a single tree a majestic Douglas-fir on the Pacific coast of North America. The story begins with the release of a cloud of millions of microscopic grains of pollen that coat thousands of pine cones on neighbouring trees. One pollen grain fertilizes an egg cell to create a seed and that seed develops into the tree. We follow the tree's progress as it grows and discover what role the tree plays in the forest throughout its life - from its use a home to a succession of creatures to the crucial role it plays in the water cycle, from breaking rock down into soil to removing carbon dioxide from the air and producing oxygen. Even after it dies, the tree plays a crucial role in the forest with moss, ferns, and other plants using the tree as a nurse log, and its decaying wood providing nutrients for insects and fungi. Tree also looks at the community of organisms that share the tree's ecosystem and at the events going on in the larger world during the tree's lifetime. Tree pays tribute to a ubiquitous organism that is too often taken for granted but without which life would be impossible. 1