Graham Powell has written an insightful and beautifully illustrated book on the lives of conifers. Everyone who works with, studies, and loves these trees will derive both knowledge and pleasure from learning about them in great detail. I have always had a special fondness for the conifers and their mystical and inspiring representatives like the massive redwoods and the bleak denizens of the boreal forests, the spruces. I conclude that Powell’s book does them their well-deserved justice. – Graeme Berlin, Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
A comparative account of the coniferous trees indigenous to Northeastern North America.
Extensively illustrated with full-color photographs, diagrams, and drawings by the author, Graham R. Powell’s Lives of Conifers examines the complex and fascinating life cycles of the 12 coniferous trees that grow naturally in northeastern North America on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.
Tracing their development from seeds and seedlings, to saplings, through the pole stage to maturity, old age, and death, the book is designed to provide a comparison of each species at each stage of life, thus aiding in the recognition and identification of species at all stages of their existence. It includes descriptions of developmental processes and how they differ among the species.
The species covered in the book are:
balsam fir
red pine
eastern hemlock
black spruce
tamarack larch
red spruce
eastern white pine
white spruce
jack pine
eastern juniper
pitch pine
eastern thuja.
The book is based almost entirely on what is visible to the careful observer in the forest, and includes only the parts of trees that can be seen above ground. Lives of Conifers will appeal to forest scientists, forestry students, foresters, forest technologists, botanists, horticulturists, arborists, naturalists, and general readers interested in knowing more about their natural surroundings.
