Leaves are all around us—in backyards, cascading from window boxes, even emerging from small cracks in city sidewalks given the slightest glint of sunlight. Perhaps because they are everywhere, it’s easy to overlook the humble leaf, but a close look at them provides one of the most enjoyable ways to connect with the natural world. A lush, incredibly informative tribute to the leaf, Nature’s Fabric offers an introduction to the science of leaves, weaving biology and chemistry with the history of the deep connection we feel with all things growing and green. Leaves come in a staggering variety of textures and shapes: they can be smooth or rough, their edges smooth, lobed, or with tiny teeth. They have adapted to their environments in remarkable, often stunningly beautiful ways—from the leaves of carnivorous plants, which have tiny “trigger hairs” that signal the trap to close, to the impressive defense strategies some leaves have evolved to reduce their consumption. (Recent studies suggest, for example, that some plants can detect chewing vibrations and mobilize potent chemical defenses.) In many cases, we’ve learned from the extraordinary adaptations of leaves, such as the invention of new self-cleaning surfaces inspired by the slippery coating found on leaves. But we owe much more to leaves, and Lee also calls our attention back to the fact that that our very lives—and the lives of all on the planet—depend on them. Not only is foliage is the ultimate source of food for every living thing on land, its capacity to cycle carbon dioxide and oxygen can be considered among evolution’s most important achievements—and one that is critical in mitigating global climate change. Taking readers through major topics like these while not losing sight of the small wonders of nature we see every day—if you’d like to identify a favorite leaf, Lee’s glossary of leaf characteristics means you won’t be left out on a limb—Nature’s Fabric is eminently readable and full of intriguing research, sure to enhance your appreciation for these extraordinary green machines.

Educator, author, and naturalist Harriet L. Keeler (1844-1921) was a prominent figure in her time. This is a facsimile reprint of her first book written for a national audience, with a biographical introduction by Carol Poh Miller that illuminates Keeler's life and accomplishments.

This book assesses the scientific knowledge of tropical tree biology set against a background of community ecology and forest structure.

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 quick-reference checklists that will help gardeners, designers and planners to choose appropriate species for specific use and conditions." "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."--Jacket.

The tropics are the source of many of our familiar fruits, vegetables, oils, and spice, as well as such commodities as rubber and wood. Moreover, other tropical fruits and vegetables are being introduced into our markets to offer variety to our diet. Now, as tropical forests are increasingly threatened, we face a double-fold crisis: not only the loss of the plants but also rich pools of potentially useful genes. Wild populations of crop plants harbor genes that can improve the productivity and disease resistance of cultivated crops, many of which are vital to developing economies and to global commerce. Eight chapters of this book are devoted to a variety of tropical crops—beverages, fruit, starch, oil, resins, fuelwood, fodder, spices, timber, and nuts—the history of their domestication, their uses today, and the known extent of their gene pools, both domesticated and wild. Drawing on broad research, the authors also consider conservation strategies such as parks and reserves, corporate holdings, gene banks and tissue culture collections, and debt-for-nature swaps. They stress the need for a sensitive balance between conservation and the economic well-being of local populations. If economic growth is part of the conservation effort, local populations and governments will be more strongly motivated to save their natural resources. Distinctly practical and soundly informative, this book provides insight into the overwhelming abundance of tropical forests, an unsettling sense of what we may lose if they are destroyed, and a deep appreciation for the delicate relationships between tropical forest plants and people around the world.