Oak

The oak: One of nature's most majestic creations, sacred to Zeus and Thor, capable of living for a thousand years. But also a familiar friend, the landmark of childhood backyards and parks, host to treehouses and swings, provider of welcome shade. In this beautiful volume, published in the same oversize square format as her best seller Ancient Trees, America's foremost tree portraitist, Beth Moon, pays tribute to the oak. She captures every stage of its life cycle, from the acorn to the seedling to the sapling. Most of her hand-tinted full-page photographs, however, are devoted to mature oaks of the United States and the United Kingdom--both anonymous specimens whose gnarled, leafy personalities reveal themselves to her sensitive eye and famous trees with their own names and recorded histories stretching back centuries. A poetic text by the photographer traces the life cycle of the oak, and an essay illuminates the natural and cultural history of the genus Quercus. This book will be a must for all tree lovers, and anyone who has an oak in their yard.