Trees Up Close: The Beauty of Bark, Leaves, Flowers and Seeds

If ever a case is to be made for ignoring the forest for the trees, Hugo and Llewellyn makes it with these beautiful 169 color photographs -- many magnified -- that are a study celebrating "tree watching," the act of taking time and applying intention to enjoy the visual details of the tree, in all its idiosyncratic habits and varied seasonal expressions. A "practiced tree watcher knows there are dozens of seasons, not just four -- and that one of them, for example, could be called %E2%80%98acorns plumping out,'" they write. The narrative of looking closely at a tree begins with a chapter titled Leaves. Highlighting venation, pinnation, and serration, the detailed photographs lend stunning individuality to foliage. Subsequent chapters (Flowers and Cones, Fruit and Seeds; Bud and Leaf Scars; Bark and Twigs) fill out the narrative that brings full circle the seasonal life cycle of trees as exotic as the mimosa and as ordinary as the maple. Seeing them in this intimate detail introduces the universe that is the tree, which ought not to be lost in the forest. (Aug.)