This captivating book explores the real connection and communication that runs underground between trees in the forest. The well-researched details about trees' own social network will help readers see that the natural world's survival depends on staying connected and helping others—just like us! Parents, teachers, and gift givers will find: a beautiful story about our forests with scientifically accurate information educational backmatter about this underground web of communication a nature book that supports social emotional learning The fascinating mycorrhizal fungi network runs underground through the roots of trees in the forest allowing for connection and communication. Readers will discover that trees have their own social network to help each other survive and thrive.

As well as offering wood and charcoal fuels, timber for buildings and ships, latex rubber, dyes, shade, shelter from the weather, fruits and nuts to enjoy and poisons to avoid, trees provide the world with oxygen while their roots stabilize soil to prevent flooding and erosion. Moreover, bark, roots, leaves, flowers, fruits or seeds also offer medicinal products. Meanwhile, the forest has ever been a magical place inspiring writers and poets such as C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien, Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Coleridge. The Secret Language of Trees explores fifty different species of tree. It looks at the history of the tree, its medicinal and other uses, as well as its language meaning and symbolism. Each entry is supported by a beautiful watercolour of the tree itself as well as its leaves or fruit.

Trees were central to Henry David Thoreau’s creativity as a writer, his work as a naturalist, his thought, and his inner life. His portraits of them were so perfect, it was as if he could see the sap flowing beneath their bark. When Thoreau wrote that the poet loves the pine tree as his own shadow in the air, he was speaking about himself. In short, he spoke their language. In this original book, Richard Higgins explores Thoreau’s deep connections to trees: his keen perception of them, the joy they gave him, the poetry he saw in them, his philosophical view of them, and how they fed his soul. His lively essays show that trees were a thread connecting all parts of Thoreau’s being—heart, mind, and spirit. Included are one hundred excerpts from Thoreau’s writings about trees, paired with over sixty of the author’s photographs. Thoreau’s words are as vivid now as they were in 1890, when an English naturalist wrote that he was unusually able to “to preserve the flashing forest colors in unfading light.” Thoreau and the Language of Trees shows that Thoreau, with uncanny foresight, believed trees were essential to the preservation of the world.

About Trees considers our relationship with language, landscape, perception, and memory in the Anthropocene. The book includes texts and artwork by a stellar line up of contributors including Jorge Luis Borges, Andrea Bowers, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ada Lovelace and dozens of others. Holten was artist in residence at Buro BDP. While working on the book she created an alphabet and used it to make a new typeface called Trees. She also made a series of limited edition offset prints based on her Tree Drawings.

“The Language of Trees, like Whitman’s Leaves of Grass though in a magic realist vernacular, refreshingly asserts that deeply American conviction: the gravest natural instinct is to heal and be healed. A shimmeringly heartfelt story.” —Gregory Maguire, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked “Crafted with suspenseful pacing and delicate imagery, Ilie Ruby’s book combines the qualities of an irresistible ghost story with a healing tale of redemption.” —Elizabeth Rosner, author of The Speed of Light A truly stunning literary debut, Ilie Ruby’s The Language of Trees is a fiercely beautiful novel that explores the relationships that define us, the events that shape us, and the places we will go to in order to save ourselves and those we love most. Fans of Jennifer McMahon, Alice Hoffman, and Niall Williams will be captivated by this haunting tale of homecoming and secrets that sparkles with exceptional writing and a gothic edge.

"The potential hazards of trees, how and why they break, and how they give warning through the silent signs of their body language are graphically described ..."--Publisher description.

Explores our relationship with the archetypal tree, a central theme throughout human civilization, expressed through religion, myth, and culture. Mann also investigates the physical and healing properties of trees and their importance to life itself--especially in today's age of environmental fragility. --From publisher description.