A world expert on how trees chemically affect our environment, Diana Beresford-Kroeger has woven together ecology, ancient myth, horticulture, spirituality, science and alternative medicine in The Global Forest to capture their enormous significance to us--and our future. From enormous native Savannah trees that create their own sunscreen to hedgerows that contain and entire chain of life, this book shows us the power of the global forest.
Trees absorb pollutants from the ground, comb particulates from the air and house beneficial insects. But what they do chemically in the environment is something we're only beginning to understand. Trees not only breathe and communicate; they also reproduce, heal and even nurture, and each of these forty interlocking essays picks out a different aspect of the life of the forest, explains it and then shows why it is so vitally important.
Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist, researcher and lecturer who is an expert on the environmental, nutritional and herbicidal properties of trees. Her previous books include Arboretum America and A Garden For Life. She has loved trees all her life, and her garden includes over 100 species. This is her first book to be published in the UK.
"Beresford-Kroeger's ideas are a rare approach to natural history... The essays of The Global Forest are a beautiful and poetic tribute to their subject, based on wide-ranging scientific knowledge."
- E.O. Wilson, Professor Emeritus Harvard University
"A beautifully written and carefully constructed book ... As I walked to work this morning, I did begin to see the trees with a newfound respect and awe"
- Kayleigh Lawrence, New Scientist