The Genius of Trees

How trees mastered the elements and shaped the world

Harriet Rix

$59.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

The Bodley Head Ltd
07 September 2025

Popular science; Ecological science, the Biosphere; Earth sciences; The environment; Trees, wildflowers & plants

A mesmerising, mind-expanding global story which shows how trees have learned to use the soil, air, water, plants, fungi, fire, animals and people around them to shape our world - possessing agency beyond anything we might have imagined.

Taking us on an awe-inspiring journey through deep history and across the globe, The Genius of Trees restores trees to their rightful position not as victims of our negligence but as ingenious, stunningly inventive agents in a grand ecological narrative.

Some have been using fire as a reproductive tool since prehistoric times. Others have gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure their fruits reach large primates, who can spread their seeds over vast distances, while poisoning smaller and less useful mammals. Some can split solid rock and create fertile ground in barren landscapes, effectively building entire ecosystems from scratch. For the first time, we witness the inventive and astonishing ways trees sculpt and even master their environment and understand the science of how they achieve these feats.

From oaks growing in Devon and Amedi in Iraq to the laurel rainforests of the Canary Islands, metasequoias in California and fossil forests preserved from hundreds of millions of years ago, we see how trees not only farm the landscape in which they grow but also manipulate the fundamental elements, other species and even humankind to achieve their ends.

At once transporting and expert, this eye-opening, mind-expanding journey into the inner lives of nature's most powerful plant is a profoundly new and original way of understanding both the miracles trees perform and the glories of our natural world.

By: Harriet Rix
Imprint: The Bodley Head Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9781847927828
ISBN 10: 1847927823
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 07 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Harriet Rix is a tree science consultant and writer. She was formerly based at the Tree Council where she supported Defra in researching tree diseases and urban tree strategies and was secretary for Hedgelink. Before joining the tree sector, she worked in landmine clearance in the Middle East. She is trustee of the Iraqi environmental charity Hasar. Rix holds a biochemistry degree from the University of Oxford and an MPhil in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. She was a London Library Emerging Writer, and her writing and photography has been published in the Financial Times, London Review of Books and Times Literary Supplement and more. The Genius of Trees is her first book.

Reviews for The Genius of Trees: How trees mastered the elements and shaped the world

A wondrous spreading canopy of a book that gives us trees as we’ve never seen them before: as dynamic forces, founders of our world, and agents of their own destiny - as well as ours. This is science writing at its best - beautifully explained, brilliantly written and perception-changing -- Isabella Tree, author of Wilding An exceptional book. Up to date scientifically, beautifully clear for all of us, it changes our entire view of trees while carrying us to other worlds and times. Enchantingly written, it has personal touches which unite science, travel and fine literature and lead us by the hand through woods we never understood before -- Robin Lane Fox, historian and gardening correspondent for the Financial Times A compelling journey of a book, full of wonder and revelation. Highly recommended -- Sue Stuart-Smith, author of the Sunday Times bestselling The Well Gardened Mind If I was dazzled by nature and in awe of trees before I read this book, I now know how much we are indebted to them for the way they have shepherded life on earth for millions of years -- Kirsty Wark, television presenter and journalist Fascinating and evocative, an intimate ride into the magical world of trees. This book contains everything you ever wanted to know - and so much you never knew you wanted to know - about these incredible organisms -- Chris Fitch, author of Wild Cities You will forever love trees after you read this wonderful book. Not only is the text brilliant, but the author is genius. Harriet Rix's stories range from why sloths are shaped by trees to be greenish in colour, to the chemical secrets of chocolate trees, to how one fragile moth pollinates the Joshua trees. You will want to read this book again and again -- Meg Lowman, aka Canopy Meg, author of The Arbornaut A magisterial tour de force. Rix packs in several lifetimes of science into this sweeping story of the amazing genius of trees. I learned so much. Surely destined to become a classic -- Ben Rawlence, author of The Treeline Trees are not passive passengers in Earth’s story; they are the engineers of life itself. The Genius of Trees is a rare blend of science and wonder, reminding us just how much we still have to learn from these ancient organisms. Harriet Rix captures their wonder with clarity and awe -- Thomas Crowther, Ecologist and Climate Scientist