The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees of the World [Hardcover]

Catherine Cutler (Author), Tony Russell (Author), Martin Walters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2007

The ultimate reference guide and identifier for more than 1000 of the most spectacular, best-loved and unusual trees across the globe.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Catherine Cutler is the supervisor of the humid tropics biome at the award-winning Eden Project, in Cornwall, England. She was responsible for overseeing the planting, design and development of the biome, from its beginnings, as a tropical paradise. Her career has included a study and work period in Malaysia's National Orchid Garden in Kuala Lumpur, where she took part in an environmetally orientated forestation scheme, propagating native rainforest trees in east Malaysia, and working in India maintaining and cataloguing formal gardens. Her travel in the tropics included study of agro-forestry systems in Kenya and spice-growing in the Caribbean. Martin Walters is a writer, editor and naturalist, based in Cambridge, UK. He studied Zoology at Oxford, and worked for several years as Biological Sciences Editor at Cambridge University Press where he was responsible for developing the botany, ecology and natural history lists, before becoming a freelance editor and writer. He now works partly in connection with the People and Plants Initiative of Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), organizing their publications. He is a keen field naturalist, with a special interest in botany, birds, habitats and conservation. Martin has published regularly, including field guides to birds and flowers, and nature reference books. He has also translated and adapted natural history books, including books on birds and botany, and is General Editor of the recent Travellers' Nature Guides to Britain, France, Greece and Spain (Oxford University Press), co-author of the Nature Guide to Britain in that series, and contributed much of the text on natural habitats to the popular reference book Earth (Dorling Kindersley 2003). His current projects include writing for a forthcoming Travel Guide to China, and working on a major new Plant book (both Dorling Kindersley 2004). He has served on the Wicken Fen advisory panel and is a member of his local Wildlife Trust, Cambridge Bird Club, Cambridge Natural History Society, National Trust, RSPB and BTO, and is also a member of the editorial board of Nature in Cambridgeshire, a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and an Associate of WWF. Tony Russell's career with plants began in 1978, when he joined the United Kingdom Forestry Commission, in Snowdonia. In 1983 he became Forester in the New Forest, Hampshire, England. Then, in 1989, he was appointed Head Forester of the United Kingdom's National Arboretum at Westonbirt, Gloucestershire, England - one of the finest collections of trees and shrubs in the temperate world. There he was responsible, among other things, for the conservation of rare and endangered tree species. Tony is recognized as one of the United Kingdom's leading authorities on trees. Over the last few years he has become a familiar face and voice on television and radio, presenting horticultural and arboricultural programmes, including Cotswold Garden Trail, Roots and Shoots, and BBC Gardeners' Question Time. His latest television series, Great Trees, was highly acclaimed.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Anness (March 14, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754817113
• ISBN-13: 978-0754817116
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,013,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful but Flawed Guide to Trees, March 20, 2008

By 

David B Richman (Mesilla Park, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees of the World (Hardcover)

I was very much prepared to like "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees of the World" when I first opened it. Indeed, the illustrations are very beautiful and while the reproductions are a bit small, they are very clear. I also generally like the way the pages are arranged. However the authors (Tony Russell, Catherine Cutler and Martin Walters) made several errors that in my opinion make this book less useful than it could be. First I do not like the mixing of native and exotic trees for different parts of the World. It makes me unsure as to the target audience (is this for identification or horticulture or both?) and also results in the same tree appearing more than once. The authors are inconsistent in their use of family names. It would be preferable I think to insert the Latin family name just under the common name than to mention (or often not mention it!) it in the preamble to the section. They also use old names, such as Palmae and Leguminosae in several areas, with the current Arecaceae being substituted in other parts of the book for Palmae! This inconsistent use is maddening and certainly confusing to the beginner who might think that the palms consisted of two or more families! In some cases the common names used are unusual ones or more local forms (Bull Bay is commonly called Southern Magnolia in most books- the former name is the Southeastern U.S. version. It is, however, not a true bay tree!)

I would also take exception to the section on tamarisks (pp. 434-435) in that the authors should have mentioned that, while probably suitable for Eurasia, most of these species can become pestilential weeds in other parts of the world (such as in North America). We are in fact having a very difficult time controlling several of these species around water courses.

All in all I think the authors missed a great opportunity to produce a really great reference book. With some editing and the reduction of the repetition of descriptions more tree species could have been covered in the same space. Why not a list of exotic trees for horticulture at the end of each section? This could refer to the particular description in the section for the geographical origin of the tree, rather than have, for example, Bull Bay or Breadfruit appear several times?

This could be a very useful reference book, but it only frustrated me. Perhaps somebody will publish a better reference in the future. The idea of a reasonably complete world-wide guide to trees certainly has merit, but unfortunately this book is not it, despite its lavish production.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One major error found, trust in the rest doubtful, June 10, 2009

By 

E. Reeders (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees of the World (Hardcover)

I approached the title wary in the light of David Richman's review. Turning first to the section on Eucalyptus the entry for Eu Camaldulensis has the wrong common name and an incorrect distribution map.

This is one of the best known and most widely distributed trees in the country. To get this wrong makes me wonder how accurate the rest of the work is.

The entries for the genus Eucalyptus are also wrongly located in the book, under Trees of Temperate America, rather than SE Asia/Australia. The raises questions about the quality of editing and proofing.