The Meaning of Trees

Botany, History, Healing, Lore
by Fred Hageneder

Fred Hageneder, chairman of The Friends of Trees, the Aeschylus of Aesculus, takes us back to a time before the digital era, before the thumb became the most important part of our bodies (i.e., before text messaging), before we learned to deny our humbling dependence on nature, to an era when the world still resonated with mystery, which could be found all around us, wherever there were trees. He reveals the many uses and meanings—botanical, medicinal, cultural, magical—that over the years, in different cultures, came to be attached to more than 50 types of trees. Fascinating facts abound: the Druids believed that only the wood of the yew tree was fit to make wands; a Ukrainian tonic of birch leaves contains the same healing properties as aspirin. The illustrations are superb, with each tree represented by some magnificent specimens, astonishingly photographed.

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