Book Review: Seeing Trees by Nancy Hugo Ross and Robert Llewellyn

This is an outstanding book - a sort of travel guide for looking at trees. Nancy is a great writer, who can weave diary pages, biological fact, personal experience, and quotations seamlessly. This mix of information really makes you feel like you're standing next to the author and she's pointing out the latest new tree part that she's discovered with enthusiasm that's infectious.

But, really, the star of the show has to be the photographs. Robert Llewellyn uses focus stacking to increase the range of focus and make sure that the reader can see everything that is described in the text. Such images are inspiring and at times rival any botanical illustration for detail and beauty.

The book is divided into 3 main parts: Tree Viewing, where we discover tips on how to get starts and different strategies for viewing the trees. We then move on to Observing Tree Traits: Leaves, flowers and cones, fruit, buds and leaf scars, bark and twigs. These two parts really set us up for understanding and appreciating the final part of the book.

The final part is entitled: Ten Trees: Intimate Views. Here we look at 10 trees chosen by Ross and Llewellyn. As this is an American book, many of these specific trees aren't common here - But they don't have to be. We have some relatives of those trees down our streets and in our parks in Britain, so I can transfer observations in the book to trees I have the opportunity to see on a regular basis. Importantly, the observations detailed in this book should help you view all trees in a more detailed and systematic manner - that's what makes it so enjoyable.

I think that this book is great for anyone interested in trees and specifically for any tree followers out there.



This is the first of (currently) three 'Seeing' books. The others being 'Seeing Flowers' and 'Seeing Seeds'. I will review 'Seeing Seeds' soon and already have 'Seeing Flowers', which I'm looking forward to reading in the near future.