Rare Trees contains stunning and gorgeous photos of trees. Would make a wonderful coffee table book. A fun to flip through and enjoy the beauty of nature. Thank you for the ARC.

Nice book with beautiful photos. Nature is magic. Trees and rivers are protecting us. Live in nature, respect nature, and feel the beauty of the world

This is pretty, but it is for readers already very comfortable with botany. I read a lot of science and enjoy it, but this is more in-depth than expected, not something someone new to the topic can pick up.

I got the eARC from NetGalley but couldn't open it on my tablet; read the print from my library instead.

I really would love to have this book in real physical copy with glossy pages like magazines/coffee-table-books.

Sara Oldfield must be having her name reflected in her works, "Oldfield'. She is an OBE and have year’s long experience in conservation and protection of wild tree species worldwide. She also co-chair the IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group. Her CV is enough to tell a lot about her. I remember having read one of her articles last year on the importance of trees. As I can recollect in her words, 'Trees are of exceptional ecological importance, playing a major functional role in the world's ecosystems, while also supporting many other plants, animals and fungi.' From her that article, I had learned that it is not just 'Urban Development' but even 'Wood Harvesting' & 'Livestock Farming' also affecting the environment to a very big extent. However, latter one is atleast beneficial for livelihood of living species, but the former one is completely for luxuries or utilities which can conveniently be avoided and to which an alternative could be found.

Visiting this book, yes, 'visiting', because it is more like roaming the places mentioned rather than just reading it because pictures were so good. So, visiting this book was an amazing experience and worth travelling metaphorically. I got to know many such trees to which I were completely unknown till now. As a fact, what mentioned was very horrifying for me. Over 17.5K trees are threatened with extinction, which is a way ahead or almost double of total number of mammals, birds, reptiles & amphibians combined and over 2.7K trees are listed under critical endangered category (IUCN red list). Like Bornean Ironwood, which is also mentioned in the book’s synopsis/extract, which I have seen for real also, having fruit like giant groundnut. Such a giant trees from South-East Asian region gives shelter to many more in the forests.
Dryobalanops aromatic, as mentioned, used in India from more than last two millennia for the purpose of cleaning environment from the insects, and was attached with the practices of worshipping to let people stayed with it by the way to save the habitats affecting from diseases, evolution of which is from various insects out there. Here in India, we call forest ‘Abhyaranyas (अभयारण्य)’, means ‘Sanctuaries’ (a holy or sacred place). This is the mindset, we established way before people actually understand its value over the world then. This, in itself, a conservation technique, for those who are not educated but were completely aware of the real value of nature. Medicinal plants Conservation Areas (MPACs) were also developed over period of time. And, Not to mention for crediting, but world knew that ‘Ayurveda’ was the first ever way to treat people based on completely herbs and shrubs; nevertheless to say then, that we always were in culture of saving nature as we knew importance of her since very long, way before societies became civilized to actually know it. This is the reason why people who were not able to get education formally were very much aware by means of stories and cultural traits to save nature, mostly by worshipping different trees on many/varied religious offerings in Hinduism. Many trees’ cultivation techniques were taken from India to Europe. India was and is the only country in world to have made real and in limited way, the extracts from nature, which helped the world grow in time.

What I believe, is that, for the conservation of the nature, one must be serious and not just have to play a fame-game to get their image build in media. Last day, I was reading a picture book on Vanessa Nakate (Reviews: https://www.netgalley.com/book/282174/review/441867 & https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5446086475?book_show_action=false) reading which I realized yet again that the whole problem is the pattern of saving the planet. She and activists like her & Great Thunberg and many more were just making their fame out of these screaming on saving the earth. They use papers as placards which can be easily made limitations to, to save the trees. They travel in luxury vehicles sponsored by institutions, which are paying for them to make money themselves, which eventually affecting climate more than they are actually saving it on ground. Just to metaphorically speaking and hypothetically giving lecture will not help in any manner to save our habitats. We've to work on ground. We need to set an example rather than telling people that you should do this and that & for that matter, I would just sit and enjoy luxury and that too without proper literacy.

This book leads to know where one should work and how the impacts on nature affecting our living state for real. We need to learn and educate others too, to cut down on our usages of products that help in direct proportionality to exploit nature more.

I really liked this work and would love to share knowledge I learned from here, to make people educate or atleast make them aware to work on foundation rather than blabbering to society or to the whole world for nothing impactful on real façade.

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
The introduction of the book is about how many species of trees have become endangered. Then the book covers the different types of forests and ecosystems. The next section of the book discusses many of the uses of trees. It gives specific trees for each use. Next, the book breaks down the different tree groups, using different trees as specific examples. After that, the book covers specific trees, divided by type. For anyone who is interested in nature and trees, this is a necessary book.

Beautiful pictures, so much great information, this is a great book to have on a coffee table for little ones to grow up reading.

RARE TREES by Sara Oldfield and Malin Rivers is a masterwork, beautiful, inspiring, and educational. Page upon page of detailed, fascinating information is presented as a story of how trees and humans have lived together for millennia, with wonderful photographs depicting world cultures, forests, and remote regions few are able to visit. While I appreciated the deep information, at times it felt a little too academic for my taste. However, this also contributed to my commitment to support the efforts to reforest and to support our natural world. All in all, this book is an important contribution for environmentalists, tree huggers, and every day people alike. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

I generally enjoyed this book of rare trees. However, it should be noted that I had a rough time initially engaging with the structure of the introduction. The first few paragraphs were very captivating regarding the diversity and awesomeness of trees but then it segued rather quickly to doom and gloom and then into so many acronyms of organizations that I lost interest. After a break, I tried reading again and was very happy I did so.

The remainder of the book did a nice job of breaking down various groups of trees based on ecosystem, use and family groups. This way the authors were able to provide blanket information about forests as well as specific information about rare tree species and groups. Risks and conservation efforts were addressed in a comfortable manner. Text was accented with images of picturesque landscapes, specimens, unique settings and resources to keep the reader either browsing or stopping to read for further detail.
Very interesting book for a person with a natural resource background, potentially too detailed at times for a layperson. 4 stars.

Review based on a digital ARC provided by Timber Press and NetGalley. Thank you!

This is a textbook style book on different types of trees, their environment, and other useful and fun information. It’s easy and accessible in its language and includes beautiful photos.

From dragons blood to the African Blackwood‘s comic is full of great information rare trees and beautiful pics these books are great for those who learn visually ly better than audiblly the beautiful graphics. Although that’s not me I enjoy these books a lot. I was so excited to see rare trees was a comic and couldn’t wait to read it and I am so glad I did it’s so informative and beautiful and I absolutely loved it my first five star rating for a comic. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I received a gifted advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Rare Trees is so much more than I expected it to be. I was expecting photographs and some information on rare trees but what I got was way more and so interesting too! Anything and everything in relation to trees that you could think of is within the pages of this amazing book. The book covers topics such as species of trees and where they are native to, different types of woods, extinct trees and trees facing extinction, different types of wood and what it is used for, medicine and other materials made from tree sap etc (essential oils and rubber being two), and stunning photographs, detailed sketches and a plethora or history, information and facts. I love how this book makes you view trees in such a new way and backs up why they are so important along with how we can help trees from becoming extinct and ways that we can help trees.This would make an amazing and unique coffee table book sure to start conversations!

This is a wonderful book that any nature or tree lover would enjoy. The photographs are amazing and those alone make this an incredibly compelling book, but the attention to detail in describing the "why" for this book and why the reader should care about these trees is really great. The book is much more in-depth (and much longer!) than I had originally expected, but it was a wonderful surprise. Even as someone who grew up in and works in arboriculture, I still learned quite a bit from this book. Rare Trees is truly an exceptional - and beautiful - book.

4.5/5 Thank you to Net Galley and Timber Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The title and subtitle really say it all. There are so many fascinating facts in this book. For a non-fiction book, it was still captivating. I love that the authors went through each tree species with a little map of its endemic area and gorgeous pictures. I learned so much! There is also a lot of information about what the average person can do to preserve these majestic, threatened species.

I wanted to like this book. It sounds like it would be a great coffee table book: fascinating stories! rare trees! conservation! Unfortunately the writing is in that gray zone that exists between accessible by non-scientists and obviously intended for a scientific audience. It’s a hard thing to balance, and this one falls a little too far into technical jargon to be accessible. The descriptions of the trees themselves vary widely, with some descriptions only a short paragraph and others multi-page spreads with details about conservation history and, in some cases, quotes from specialists. The pictures are pretty, but I can’t say I particularly enjoyed it as a cover-to-cover read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

If you like the podcast In Defense of Plants, read this book. It has lovely descriptions so many trees and their conservation stories, and seems to be very up-to-date. However, this is not a beginner tree book, and probably not great to read straight through if you're not already excited about trees. The text is denser than it looks, and there are a solid 400 pages of tree. Also it uses Tertiary instead of Paleogene/Neogene, but that's more of a personal preference thing. This would be a wonderful coffee table book in any nature enthusiast's living room.

This book would be an ideal gift or recommendation for someone who has an interest in forestry, nature, or just a lover of green living things. This book is broken up into 2 sections, the first covers the value of forests made up of trees.; the second covers the trees by variety. The pictures are stunning however this is an information-rich text and will not be of huge interest to the casual reader. Recommended for libraries with strong environmental and nature collections or for the naturalist who enjoys a tromp through the woods.

This review was originally published on NetGalley.com. I was given an ebook freely by NetGalley and the book’s publisher in return for a voluntary and honest review.

Rare Trees
By Sara Oldfield and Malin Rivers

This is a beautiful book. Part coffee table book, part reference book. Sara Oldfield and Malin Rivers divide their book into three chapters; the Trees and their Ecosystems, Trees and Their Uses and Special Tree Groups. In the introduction they speak plainly about our great need for healthy and protected forests.

In Trees and Their Ecosystems Oldfield and Rivers go into great detail about rainforest, cloud forests, dry forests, boreal forests and islands. They break down clearly each type of ecosystem and where they can be found in the world, what benefits they give us and what their relationship is to other plants, animals and humans in that Ecosystem. They also detail the issues threatening each ecosystem and how we can make a difference.

In Trees and Their Uses Oldfield and Rivers show the many uses trees provide. Medicine, poison, perfumes, wood, food and beauty. In Tree Groups Oldfield and Rivers break the trees into their subspecies, Conifers, Magnolias, Ashes, Oaks, Dipterocarps, Palms, and Sapotaceae. Then they list individual trees found within the subspecies. With each tree we learn how endangered they are based on a scale, their natural range, preferred habitat and treats.

Lastly I just want to say the photography is stunning. If you’ve ever marveled at the grandeur of trees this book is for you.

This has been a delightful book to dabble in every so often. It is informative and engaging, and I have best enjoyed it by reading small chunks rather than as a read-through.

This is an absolutely beautiful book. It is full of interesting information about ecology, trees in general, and rare and endangered trees. All of the information and types of trees are divided into chapters.
I particularly enjoyed the chapters about the various types of trees. An easy to access sidebar is provided for each species with includes a map, native range, and other quick references. A more thorough discussion follows. The organization of this book makes it simple for people to find the species and categories of trees that are of interest.
The reader does not have to be a botanist to appreciate this book. The language is readable but still provides relevant information.
This book is illustrated with beautiful photographs of trees, their flowers, landscapes, and other related material. It would make an excellent addition to any nature-lover's collection.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up “Rare Trees”, by Sara Oldfield and Malin Rivers, as I love learning about unusual trees and trees in general. I didn’t immediately pick up, from the back cover copy, that the defining feature of this book is it highlights trees which are threatened. It looks at each tree, why it matters to its ecosystem and what is negatively impacting its survival and what is being done to stop it disappearing.

It is fascinating, well-written and also saddening. One cannot read it and not feel called to do more to protect our natural world and especially these beautiful trees! The photos are gorgeous and add a visual representation of what we are seeking to preserve!

If you have a passion for environmental activism or want to understand what is at risk, this one is for you! It’s a five out of five on the enJOYment scale.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from Timber Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.