Page 9 - Martin Downs Bulletin - September '19

Martin Downs, Page 9
Wise Trees
By Nils A. Shapiro
I discovered Wise Trees
not in a bookstore, nor in a
library. My wife and I were
in a shop that offered fine
furniture and home decorating
items, and I saw this volume
displayed conspicuously in
a living room setting. It was
clearly serving its purpose as
what is known in the publishing
industry as a “coffee table”
book: a lavishly produced,
photographic publication – usually on a subject such as fashion,
architecture, jewelry – that is intended to impress guests, and
the shop owner had placed it appropriately, as a prop. What They Feel, How It is actually a single organism with a root system extending over 106 acres!
Visit www.StuartAirShow.com for event info/tickets
booK rEviEw
As one who loves
and appreciates books
on a range of subjects
– to read, rather than to
simply admire – I was
struck by this book’s
cover and title because
of its subject matter.
As regular readers of
this column are well
aware by now, an
international nonfiction
bestseller that I
reviewed about a year
ago was a life-altering Pando Clonal Colony – which, for more than 80,000 years lived under the guise of an Aspen forest
experience for me: The in Utah – is now known to be a single organism: one that reproduces asexually. It is the oldest
Hidden Life of Trees: living clonal organism on Earth and, at more than 6,000 tons, the heaviest organism on the planet.
They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World,
in which Peter Wohlleben, a German who is in charge of
one of Europe’s oldest and largest natural forests, reports
on the latest scientific findings that trees have intelligence,
communicate with one another for their mutual protection,
nurture their young, act together to keep alive their dying
neighbors as long as possible...and so much more.
I decided immediately that, although Wise Trees was not
actually for sale in that store, I was not going to leave without
it, and convinced the owner to sell it to me.
*****
Presented here in a beautifully produced, oversized
(12½-inch by 11¼-inch) volume from Abrams, the leading
publisher of fine art books, are more than 100 stunning full-
color photographs and fascinating explanatory descriptions
of 59 trees from five continents that have affected the spiritual
and cultural life of civilizations around the world.
While every one of these trees deserves your attention,
space limitations here permit me to merely touch upon a
few of these:
The Magna Carta Yew
Growing in a meadow next to the river Thames near
Windsor, England, said to be between 2,000 and 2,500 years
old, this giant is believed to have been witness to King John’s
signing in 1215 of Magna Carta, the document that outlined
basic rules of law and was influential in the drafting of the
U.S. Constitution. It was also in the shadow of its leaves that
Henry VIII’s romantic liaison’s with his ill-fated second wife,
Anne Boleyn, took place.
The Bodhi Tree
The sacred fig tree in India that is a direct descendant of
the tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment.
Luna, Coastal Redwood
The tree in which anti-logging activist Julia Butterfly Hall
spent 738 days on a platform high in its canopy to prevent
its being cut down.
Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree
This Flower of Kent apple grows in the orchard of
Woolsthorpe Manor, historic family home of Sir Isaac
Newton. It was here in 1665 that Newton happened to
observe an apple falling from the apple tree in his orchard
and, wondering why it fell straight down instead of sideways,
developed his theory of gravity. “In 1816 a storm blew the
apple tree down, but rather than succumbing to its fall, the
prone tree re-rooted, and began its life anew. Today it is
believed to be the oldest apple tree on the planet and is still
producing fruit.”
Survivor Trees
While the longevity of many trees is common knowledge
– the oldest known living tree is well over 6,000 years of
age – three of the trees shown and described in this book
have remarkable survival stories of their own.
Book Review on page 10