The changing fall leaves mark the turn of the seasons. Other trees stay green year-round. Scientists use these characteristics and others to classify different species of trees as deciduous or coniferous. This book explains these differences and invites readers to test their knowledge.

The changing fall leaves mark the turn of the seasons. Other trees stay green year-round. Scientists use these characteristics and others to classify different species of trees as deciduous or coniferous. This book explains these differences and invites readers to test their knowledge.

"First published in 1945 by Collins"--Copyright page.

In a beautiful garden, some plants return each year, while others must be newly planted each spring. This title explains the life cycles of perennial plants and annual plants. Readers will apply their learning by distinguishing between examples from each group.

Dendrology: Cones, Flowers, Fruits and Seeds offers a comprehensive overview of the morphology of reproductive organs of woody plants of Europe in one resource. The book contains 2020 woody taxa (845 species, 58 subspecies, 38 varieties, 13 forms, 40 hybrids and 1026 cultivars), belonging to 400 genera and 121 families. It includes 447 taxa of trees and shrubs that are autochthonous in Europe and numerous ornamental species that originate from North America, Asia, South America, Australia and Africa, along with invasive woody species. Accompanied by thousands of original photographs, the book is designed to efficiently guide the reader to accurate identification. Other features include taxa organized in alphabetical order of their botanical names, flowering and fruiting time, mode of fruit or seed dispersal, and distribution range, making this a must-have reference for students and researchers in dendrology, botany, forestry, forest management and conservation, arboriculture and horticulture. - Includes 2,020 taxa of trees and shrubs important for the European dendrology - Provides detailed descriptions of reproductive organs and data on the reproductive biology of the described taxa - Contains 6,644 original, high-quality photographs of habits, cones, flowers, fruits and seeds

Recent studies that analyze the impact of various plant traits on whole-plant growth and competitive ability have provided insights into the selective pressures on characteristics such as leaf reflectivity, effective leaf size, stomatal conductance, size of photosynthetic enzyme pools, crown form, xylem structure, nitrogen fixation, and root versus shoot allocation. This research has reached an exciting stage, leading to quantitative predictions of favoured trends in these traits as a function of environmental parameters and fundamental physiological constraints. Such results reveal the importance of ecological patterns in plant form and physiology, and of evolutionary constraints on photosynthesis and primary productivity. On the Economy of Plant Form and Function summarizes the major recent advances in the economic analysis of plant behavior and suggests a framework for a unified, quantitative approach to understanding photosynthetic adaptations, their integration with other aspects of plant form, and their relationship to carbon balance and ultimate limits on plant productivity.

Forests are considered the lungs of the planet, as they consume and store carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. These biomes, defined as ecological communities dominated by long-lived woody vegetation, historically have provided an economic foundation for growing nations, supplying wood for buildings, firewood for fuel, and land for expanding cities and farms. For centuries, industrial nations in Europe and the United States have relied on large tracts of forestland for economic prosperity. The research presented in this book reveals that population pressures are causing considerable environmental distress in even the most remote forest areas. Three detailed case studies are presented. The first provides an assessment of illegal logging deep in South America’s Amazon rain forest, a region closely tied to food and product demands thousands of miles away. The second examines the effect of increased hunting in Central Africa’s Congo forest, which threatens wildlife, especially mammal species with slower reproductive cycles. Finally the third describes encroachment on old-growth tropical forests on the Southern Pacific island of Borneo, which today is better managed thanks to the collective planning and conservation efforts of the governments of Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia.