A Natural History Of Conifers

Download or read book A Natural History of Conifers written by Aljos Farjon and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling account of the extraordinary relatives of ordinary garden conifers. Leading expert Aljos Farjon provides a compelling narrative that observes conifers from the standpoint of the curious naturalist. It starts with the basic question of what conifers are and continues to explore their evolution, taxonomy, ecology, distribution, human uses, and issues of conservation. As the story unfolds many popular misconceptions are dispelled, such as the false notion that all conifers have cones. The extraordinary diversity of conifers begins to dawn as Farjon describes the diminutive creeping shrub Microcachrys tetragona, whose strange seed cones resemble raspberries, and the prehistoric-looking Araucaria meulleri. The taxonomic diversity of conifers is huge and Farjon goes on to relate how, over the course of 300 million years, these trees and shrubs have adapted to survive geological upheavals, climatic extremes, and formidable competition from flowering plants. All who seek to learn more about the early history of life on our planet will cherish this book.

Download or read book Conifer Country written by Michael Edward Kauffmann and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Natural History of North American Trees written by Donald Culross Peattie and published by Trinity University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-10 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A volume for a lifetime" is how The New Yorker described the first of Donald Culross Peatie's two books about American trees published in the 1950s. In this one-volume edition, modern readers are introduced to one of the best nature writers of the last century. As we read Peattie's eloquent and entertaining accounts of American trees, we catch glimpses of our country's history and past daily life that no textbook could ever illuminate so vividly. Here you'll learn about everything from how a species was discovered to the part it played in our country’s history. Pioneers often stabled an animal in the hollow heart of an old sycamore, and the whole family might live there until they could build a log cabin. The tuliptree, the tallest native hardwood, is easier to work than most softwood trees; Daniel Boone carved a sixty-foot canoe from one tree to carry his family from Kentucky into Spanish territory. In the days before the Revolution, the British and the colonists waged an undeclared war over New England's white pines, which made the best tall masts for fighting ships. It's fascinating to learn about the commercial uses of various woods -- for paper, fine furniture, fence posts, matchsticks, house framing, airplane wings, and dozens of other preplastic uses. But we cannot read this book without the occasional lump in our throats. The American elm was still alive when Peattie wrote, but as we read his account today we can see what caused its demise. Audubon's portrait of a pair of loving passenger pigeons in an American beech is considered by many to be his greatest painting. It certainly touched the poet in Donald Culross Peattie as he depicted the extinction of the passenger pigeon when the beech forest was destroyed. A Natural History of North American Trees gives us a picture of life in America from its earliest days to the middle of the last century. The information is always interesting, though often heartbreaking. While Peattie looks for the better side of man's nature, he reports sorrowfully on the greed and waste that have doomed so much of America's virgin forest.

Download or read book Conifers of California written by Ronald M. Lanner and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book An Atlas of the World's Conifers written by Aljos Farjon and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 2014 Choice Magazine "Outstanding Academic Title" An Atlas of the World's Conifers is the first ever atlas of all known conifer species. It is based on locality information of ca. 37,000 collected herbarium specimens held in scientific institutions. As well as providing natural distribution maps for each species, Farjon and Filer give the reader comprehensive insight into the biogeography, diversity and conservation status of conifers on all continents, dispelling the widely held view that they are primarily a northern boreal plant group. Conifer diversity is analysed and presented with a taxonomic and geographic perspective. Distribution patterns are interpreted using the latest information on continental drift, dispersal and phylogeny. The entire dataset supporting the Atlas can be consulted and verified online. These data can also be used for further research and are an invaluable resource for anyone working on conifer systematics, biogeography or conservation. An Atlas of the World’s Conifers indicates the known distribution of all conifers including an analysis of their biogeography, diversity and conservation status. Also available from Brill is Aljos Farjon’s A Handbook of the World's Conifers, published in 2010 (ISBN 978 90 04 17718 5) which is a 2017 Choice Magazine "Outstanding Academic Title".

Download or read book A Handbook of the World's Conifers (2 Vols.) written by Aljos Farjon and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-04-27 with total page 1113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first handbook to include detailed information on all 615 conifers, temperate as well as tropical, this encyclopedic work offers users as diverse as ecologists, gardeners, foresters and conservationists the accumulated knowledge of these trees obtained in 30 years of academic research, presented in an easily searchable format.

Download or read book A Natural History of the New World written by Alan Graham and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Natural History of the New World traces the evolution of plant ecosystems, beginning in the Late Cretaceous period and ending in the present, charting their responses to changes in geology and climate.