Tree Day

"What's the best way to spend a sylvan day? Led by Meg Lowman, one of the world's first tree-top scientists or arbornauts, we travel the planet in twenty-four hours to meet twenty-four trees. At three in the morning, we visit Yemen's Socotra Island and the dragon blood tree. It's too early to see the red sap for which the tree gets its name, sap that has served as both a traditional medicine and violin varnish. But, if we watch closely, we will see nocturnal geckos carry the trees' pollen in their snouts. Four hours later, the early tropical sun hits the red mangrove canopies, the light igniting the plant's unique ability to transform salt water into fresh. By ten that morning, we climb toward the top of the world's tallest species, the coastal redwood. Though dense fog makes it hard to see, the mist is a reminder that redwoods absorb water through both their roots and canopies, an adaptation that helps them survive such heights. The Vermont sun is already low at two o'clock in an autumn afternoon. Given the reduced sunlight in this New England forest, the sugar maple's leaf has stopped producing the chlorophyll that converts light into energy-and green gives way to vivid crimson foliage. We're most interested in the trees' sap; after many hours of boiling, we have delicious maple syrup. At six in the evening in Mexico, we observe the origin of another treat. The cocoa tree has flowers that sprout along its trunk and branches, allowing easy access for night creatures-especially tiny midges-that pollinate the tree and make a start to chocolate for humans and delicious pods whose seeds are dispersed by hungry monkeys, bats, rats, and squirrels. For each hour, celebrated artist Thibaud Hérem has depicted these scenes with gorgeous pen and ink illustrations. Working closely together to narrate and illustrate these unique moments in time, Lowman and Hérem have created an engaging read that is a perfect way to spend an hour or two-and a true gift for all dendrophiles, amateur arbornauts, and anyone who has ever looked up at a tree in wonder"--