How to Read a Tree

From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs (295,000 copies in print), an eye-opening adventure into the secret language of trees, showing a whole secret world of clues and signs hidden in branches, bark, roots, leaves, buds, trunks, canopies, and more

Discover a new and secret language of clues and signs in the trees all around us

In his singular, eye-opening books about the overlooked layers of the natural world—including The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs and The Natural Navigator—Tristan Gooley helped readers reconnect with nature by finding direction and searching for hidden clues in stars, clouds, water, and more. Now, he turns his attention to perhaps nature’s most beloved feature—the stately, majestic tree.

Every single tree tells us an epic story—if we know how to read it! Here you’ll discover hundreds of astonishing secrets hiding in plain sight among the living network of branches, trunks, roots, bark, leaves, buds, flowers, stumps, and more. A pale line down the center of a leaf indicates that water is nearby; a touch of reddish or purple bark signals new growth; low-growing, young branches reveal that a tree is struggling to survive. Tapping into this silent language of trees sharpens our understanding of the environment; to read a tree is to paint a whole new and vivid portrait of the surrounding land, soil, weather, animals, people, and even time. You’ll never see a tree the same way again.

About the Author

New York Times–bestselling author Tristan Gooley has led expeditions on five continents, climbed mountains in three, and is the only living person to have both flown and sailed solo across the Atlantic. His more than two decades of pioneering outdoor experience include research among tribal peoples in some of the remotest regions on Earth.