Product Description

How often do we overlook bark, a frequently beautiful and always important part of the plant, focusing instead on leaves, flowers, and the shape of the trunk and branches? Hugues Vaucher, a Swiss watchmaker with a lifelong fondness for trees and an eye for detail, illustrates the rich variety of colors, patterns, and textures of bark with more than 550 photographs in Tree Bark: A Color Guide. For a number of the trees, he provides photographs of younger and older specimens, showing the distinctive changes that age makes in bark, which must develop and expand to accommodate the growth of the tree.

This unique book also covers the diversity of bark in chapters on the structure, anatomy, and physical properties of this "clothing" of trees. Though humans have tended to concentrate on the uses of wood, bark has nonetheless lent itself to a rich variety of applications, and a chapter documents the surprisingly varied ethnobotany of bark. The medicinal properties of several types of bark are carefully outlined, and the reader will never think of cork as just a bottle-stopper again.

Originally published in French and German in the early 1990s, this new Timber Press edition of Tree Bark has been improved and expanded to include more than 440 species and varieties of trees from around the world. For this new book, tropical and subtropical trees, and trees from the Southern Hemisphere, have been added to broaden the coverage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #580150 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 260 pages

Review
"An excellent choice for professionals and general readers interested in woody plants and of particular interest to photographers and artists; a must for academic libraries with extensive botanical, horticultural, and gardening collections; and very desirable for any library."
—K. T. Settlemyer, Choice, November 2003 (Choice )

"Definitely barking up the right tree in Hugues Vaucher, who identifies the rich variety of colors, patterns and textures to be found in Tree Bark: A Color Guide."
—Publishers Weekly, May 17, 2003 (Publishers Weekly )

"This book shows how interesting tree bark can be with its wide variety in color, texture and patterns when observed carefully."
—National Gardener, June 2003 (National Gardener )

An excellent choice for professionals and general readers interested in woody plants and of particular interest to photographers and artists; a must for academic libraries with extensive botanical, horticultural, and gardening collections; and very desirable for any library. K. T. Settlemyer, Choice, November 2003 (Choice )

Definitely barking up the right tree in Hugues Vaucher, who identifies the rich variety of colors, patterns and textures to be found in Tree Bark: A Color Guide. Publishers Weekly, May 17, 2003 (Publishers Weekly )

This book shows how interesting tree bark can be with its wide variety in color, texture and patterns when observed carefully. National Gardener, June 2003 (National Gardener )

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About the Author
Hugues Vaucher has written several previous books on bark and trees and contributes regularly to the journal of the Swiss Dendrological Society. His bark photographs have been exhibited at botanical gardens in Switzerland and France, and some of his bark photographs are part of the permanent display at Le Musée Neuhaus, Bienne, Switzerland.

Customer Reviews

A tree lover's delight
This book is a tree-lovers delight. It has but four chapters. The first three are short, one each on the diversity of bark, the structure of bark (with black and white illustrations), and the ethnobotany of bark. These three take up about 50 pages and are concise and informative.

Chapter Four is about 200 pages in length and it comprises over 550 color photographs of bark taken mostly in Europe, North America and Australia. These are the devoted work of an enthusiast, pictures taken over many years of carefully chosen specimens. First published in Europe about a decade ago, this is the first North American presentation of a respected and well-loved book.

I'm a tree person myself and I've always enjoyed lookingat the many variations of color and texture in trees of various species and ages. But this book really opened my eyes and helped me to notice and appreciate patterns and shadings I might never have noticed.

Thank you, Timber Press, for bringing this book to North America.

Truly impressive
The Timber Press has been publishing gardening books for quite a few years now and appears quite devoted to turning out good-looking books. This striving for perfection is not limited to looks only but includes content: the Timber Press is perhaps the only publishing company to get the "hybrid sign" right (i.e. following the ICBN). In this book they also follow recent developments in taxonomy as concerns recent reassignments as to family.

It is clear that this devoted publishing company found an author devoted to making good-looking photographs and the result is a stunning book, that will be treasured by anyone who cares about trees. It is as close to a real life viewing of the trees as I ever experienced.

This book will look superb on a coffee table or on a reference shelf. It will make a great gift to just about anybody. Let's hope this splendid overview of a neglected aspect of trees is not an incident but a promise of many other beautiful books to come.

For people who appreciate the beauty of trees...
If you love trees, this book will provide a unique perspective -- on bark. The wonderful photographs highlight the wide variety of tree bark types and patterns. And it features some barks that are extraordinary. Whether you are landscaping a lot or want another way to identify trees as you walk through the woods, I am sure you find this book fascinating. It helped me find some new trees that I want to plant in my yard. Now, I just have to find a nursery that carries them.