Product Description

This exhaustive, lavishly illustrated A--Z encyclopedic guide to tropical and subtropical trees is destined to become a much-treasured, hard-used garden classic. Margaret Barwick describes trees by their specific attributes and profiles, such as color, shape, texture, flowers, foliage, edible fruit, spice or timber, and those that have traditionally provided an essential element to the lives of their communities. In addition to the 1,981 color photographs of trees taken in the wild at the peak of their condition, and over two hundred tree silhouettes depicting height and spread, there are eighty specially commissioned artworks of the morphology of leaves, flowers and fruit, as well as a collection of useful quick-reference checklists that will help gardeners, designers and planners to choose appropriate species for specific use and conditions.

Tropical & Subtropical Trees contains handy summary boxes for every species that cover details such as growth habits, light and shade requirements, tolerances, soil types, details of propagation and problems that may occur, resulting in an irresistible mix of images, descriptive captions and informed reference texts. Margaret Barwick presents her considerable knowledge of the trees' natural habitat in a lively and accessible fashion, peppering her text with anecdotes and snippets of information on the trees' agricultural or medicinal applications, and even their sacred or mystical associations.

Tropical & Subtropical Trees is an essential reference book for all enthusiastic gardeners, designers, professional landscapers and landscape architects, students of botany, arboriculturists and horticulturists, as well as the curious traveller with an interest in and passion for the tropical and subtropical.

With 2,305 illustrations, 1,981 in color

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147539 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

Review
"A visually stunning compendium of exotic species. ... This is an invaluable tool for nurseries, landscape architects, botanists, and gardeners."
—B. E. Fleury, Choice, April 2005 (Choice )

"The most comprehensive and lavishily illustrated book on the subject that has ever been published."
—John Bagnasco, Garden Compass, August 2005 (Garden Compass )

"Whether an amateur or professional gardener this book works as an excellent reference book sprinkled with interesting facts."
—Joanne S. Carpender, National Gardener, January 2005 (National Gardener )

About the Author
MARGARET BARWICK has spent more than forty-five years as a hands-on gardener and landscape designer in New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Malawi, the British Virgin Islands, USA, France and the Cayman Islands, where she was involved in setting up their Botanic Park. The culmination of all her work, this book reflects Margaret Barwick's passion for the subject and her appreciation of what fellow gardeners, both lay and professional, need to know about tree selection for tropical and subtropical climates. She is also the co-author with Anton van der Schans of Tropical Flowering Vines.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The story begins with algae, primitive plants without leaves and stems that were the only living matter for two or three billion years before plants with leaves and stems began to appear. It is no surprise that the earth's colonization by plants should have proceeded so slowly. The first real plants not only had to create tissues capable of producing thick, cellular walls that could resist air and wind, but also to develop those complex adaptations that made metabolism and reproduction possible through roots and breathing systems. It was these thick, cellular walls that were later to evolve as the wood of trees.

During the early stages, reproductive methods changed rapidly. These primeval plants were spore-bearing. They could no longer rely on water for the mobile, male gametes to reach the stationary, female gametes, but were forced to rely on their spores for propagation, as flowers did not exist. They evolved during the Carboniferous period, so called because, as they died, the plants laid down the fossil coal carbons used today as fuel. Immense forests gradually evolved, composed of mainly Equisetem (horsetails) and ferns. This flora is mainly extinct, although descendants of the tree ferns and equisetums still exist in some regions. For tens of millions of years, these primeval forests acted as highly efficient purifying agents for the atmosphere, which then contained much more carbon dioxide than it does today. By fixing carbon and giving off oxygen, they permitted the evolution of animals and vegetables, which require large quantities of oxygen. At the same time, this process created cleaner, purer air that allowed more solar energy to reach the earth's surface. It was during this era that the large group of plants that we call gymnosperms first evolved. The early Cretaceous period, some 120 million years ago, saw the emergence of plants with true flowers and fruits with seeds.

Throughout the comparatively recent Tertiary period, trees began to appear. They resembled the trees of today, and many of them still survive. But by the time primitive man appeared, the surface of the earth had been swept by at least four ice ages and plants had to fight for survival. The second ice age was the most severe, although it was separated from the first ice age by a relatively temperate period of some 50,000 years. During the first period, the poles were covered by ice caps that still exist today. With each era of cooling and warming, only the most well-established or adaptable plants survived. Gradually, evolutionary processes increased the diversity of plant families in different continents and climate zones, leading to a series of astonishing mutations and adaptations. Particularly influential were the high mountain ranges that checked plant migrations and gave some protection to the flora that had already enjoyed a more favourable environment during the warmer, Tertiary period. Thus plants became more and more specialized, and this evolutionary process still continues, even if plants seem to be unchanging.

During the planet's cataclysmic periods of warming and cooling, its environment changed dramatically, but the flora went on gradually adapting itself to the new conditions. During this process of interaction and modification, the biological communities adapted to the changing biosphere, gradually creating ecosystems. These are biological systems of interacting species that are dependent on their physical environment and on each other. Each ecosystem is bound up not only with the climate and other environmental factors, but with every form of life that develops within it, fauna as well as flora. There are many influences on these ecosystems. They include latitude, height above sea level and continental, coastal or island situations. Atmospheric factors such as light, temperature, humidity, rain, wind and carbon dioxide are all essential, as are the physical and chemical properties of the soil. Within this complex system, the stability of each element is important to the equilibrium of the whole; insects and animals obtain nourishment from the plants and, in turn, they help in their pollination and distribution. Human intervention can alter this equilibrium and lead to its destruction. Thoughtless actions could destroy the miracle that nature has taken three billion years to create.

Customer Reviews

Stunning!
It is not easy to say something sensible about this book. It is just too overwhelming. As can be expected these days of the Timber Press this is a lavishly illustrated, gorgeously printed and handsomely bound volume. Lay-out is immaculate. All pictures (full color) are of a beautiful quality, or better. An immense amount of information is given for each species (usually one page is devoted to each species). In view of the wealth of information provided, there is a huge potential for error, but the book appears to be remarkably error-free. A curious error is that of using "cv." before a cultivar epithet. The one error-prone category here is that of the author abbreviations in the botanical names: these do not consistently follow the recommended standard and, from time to time, are in something of a mess. Obviously, this is unlikely to trouble those who belong to the book's target audience. The other thing that can be questioned is its aim to cram so many trees into one book. However, for someone wanting a handy (if big) one-volume work on (sub)tropical trees this cannot be recommended enough. It will also make a lovely gift to just about anybody.

Worth the investment
I have bought several copies for my book store customers here in Panama, and all are delighted with this book. Though a bit cumbersome, it is certainly thorough, and a valuable research tool for anyone interested in the flora of the tropics. It's beautifully illustrated, a book to display as well as study, typical of Timber Press' fine volumes.

very amazing encyclopedia
An imprescinble issue for all lovers of tropical trees. Very good colour pictures and excellent and short information. The USDA zones assigned to trees sometimes are not accuracy in my experience.