Urban Arboreal

Oh my goodness, this book is wonderful and beautiful and I desperately need one to live with me! The drawings are amazing, both informative and surreal and lovely to look at. The information is interesting and covers just a little of the lives of those great green beings that we don't spend nearly enough time thinking about. I will certainly be paying attention to mine.

Have you ever been curious about the trees used to populate city streets? The Seville oranges of well, Seville. The Cherry trees of Washington DC. The Monkey Puzzle trees of Santiago.

This book identifies trees that are famous for each city, all around the world. Each tree is identified by Latin classification, as well as by common name, and a little history is given about it. Then, the leaves, flowers and sometimes bark, are shown on the facing page. It is like a travel book for tree enthusiasts.

Lovely pictures. Interesting history. A good additional to any library.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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“Urban Arboreal: A Modern Glossary of City Trees” has the loveliest cover ... I could happily wallpaper my living room with it! And the informative text and beautiful design make it a total winner! In “Urban Arboreal” we travel the world through the stories of 70 trees and the cities in which they flourish ... from the orange trees of Seville to the cherry blossoms of D.C. ... and come to learn the hidden histories of these botanical beauties. Descriptions and classifications of each tree alongside their often-unknown city history make it a compelling read, visually enhanced by lush hand-drawn illustrations. Highly recommended!

Pub Date 06 Sep 2018

Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group - Aurum Press and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

#UrbanArboreal #NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a fabulous book!

So much information in one place, this is an adventure around the world in trees! and a real eye opener.
whether a nature enthusiast, a tree huger or a frequent traveler this is the book for you.
The illustrations are beautiful, with each picture being so different and original, ranging from illustrations of whole trees, blossoms, fruits and leaves ( i even spotted a few insects and birds)
The colours in the pictures are perfectly true to life and i love the change of background colour in each.
This book is extremely well written and superbly laid out.
An well deserved 5 stars from me.

From Santiago to Barcelona, Cario to Istanbul this quirky book explores the cities less noisy but more useful inhabitants: trees.
The drawings are amazing (not actual pictures of the trees but illustrations). The information is fabulously accurate, and on Turkish bits I was amazed to see Erguvan mentioned. It's really a beautiful tree and indeed found in Istanbul.
Some cities are featured more than once, lucky them. As a lover of trees and a potential tree hugger, I loved this book.
The only thing I would add to this book is actual photos of the trees. It would have been nice to see the real things as some of them I think I've never seen in my life.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto publishing for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is gorgeous, wonderful, beautiful, exquisite. There are not enough words. It appeals to the geeky plant nerd side of me and the side that loves good design. The pages are simply conveyed, but not simplistic in style or substance. Great for a coffee table book, or a detailed book about tree types. Recommend!

Trees are one of those things that are so present in our lives but we blindly pass them everyday with no thought to their origin or age, we might notice simple things such as the change in leaf color, blooms or the absence of leaves. What if we slowed down and spent a bit more time taking in our surroundings, be more present in our lives, more involved in our environment, what a difference it would make.. This beautiful book will encourage you to become a Arboreal tourist, to have a chance to touch history and be a part of something larger than yourself..

Urban Arboreal harkens back to victorian times with their engraved Botanical illustrations. Each of the 70 trees included in this coffee table size is given with its location, common name and latin name. A bit of history is also included, some from when they were planted, the myths associated with them and how to find their locations. It helps the reader to gain a better understanding of the importance of the trees in our communities, and how they have touch so many lives before our own. They are so so endangered by urban sprawl, we must learn to recognize their importance as well as their grace to ensure that they are not taken from us forever, this book is a large positive step in that direction.

From New Zealand's Christmas tree, the crimson flowered Pohutukawa to the ancient Cotton Tree in Freetown, I was enchanted by all of the variations of trees living in urban areas. The drawings are exceptional and the stories are very diverse. This would be a wonderful gift for anyone interested in botany or travel, it covers both categories effortlessly.

Thanks to the Quarto Group and Net Galley for bringing this book to my attention and a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Urban Arboreal by Michael Jordan
A Modern Glossary of City Trees

Sept 2018
Quarto Publishing

I received a digital arc of this book for an unbiased review from NetGalley and Quarto Publishing.

A beautifully illustrated book of city trees around the world. It is organized in alphabetical order explaining the history along with descriptive information regarding the species.

It makes you understand the beauty and significance of trees. Most of these trees inhabit other countries where one would never encounter.

Urban Arboreal by Michael Jordon highlights trees used in town planning, new and old, to contribute to clean air and balance the landscape. Each tree has a fascinating history and purpose. With one page on the tree and one with an illustration of this tree, the book is both educational and artistically beautiful! I have long loved trees in general but, the more I learn of them, their variety and benefits, beauty and strength, I am learning to love them individually!

Several favourite trees feature and I have found a few new ones too! Many of the facts are surprising, such as

Of the Bodhi tree “In common with other ‘strangler’ figs, it can initially grow as an epiphyte by germinating from a seed deposited on the upper branches of a host tree, which it then progressively outcompetes by putting down long aerial roots.”
Of the Colombian Wax Palm “In the past much damage has been wrought to these remarkable trees through stripping the leaves for the Christian religious celebration of Palm Sunday”
Of the Maidenhair tree “Sometimes known in Japan ‘upside down tree’, this quaint name derives from the way that the branches, when left to their own devices, grow downward, and very old trees can develop limbs that become aerial roots or so-called stalactite branches.
I highly recommend this one if your are fond of trees! Five out of five!

This beautifully illustrated book makes accessible the theme of sustainability and the importance of proper tree planting, selection, and management as part of urban planning. Aside from a truly global perspective of the common trees used in different cities around the world from San Francisco to New Zealand, it also shares the following:

1. Origin and history of each tree as well as descriptions of how they grow
2. Regions where a particular tree is commonly found
3. Interesting facts about each tree and their cultural and/or medical significance to that particular location (e.g. the Banyan tree is considered a sacred tree in India and is closely associated with enlightenment elsewhere)
4. Urban challenges with regard to maintenance and upkeep of particular trees in the cityscape such as the Flame Tree in Hong Kong

All of these point to a very well-researched material which is useful as a reference and just a delight to browse through thanks to the illustrations. I suppose it's the illustrations that are the highlight of this book, though I'm no tree expert so I can't vouch for their accuracy. I remember having worked on a project that required tree illustrations and how the sustainability expert I worked with was a stickler for details. That being said, there are no actual photographs in this book-- I don't count this as a bad thing.

How the book can be improved, but this is just me nitpicking:
1. A general guide on how to choose trees for landscaping (e.g. choose native trees over nonnative ones) based on city planning offices' best practises
2. I wish the illustrations of the actual trees were filled in with more detail and weren't just filled in with a block color

I received a digital Advanced Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's a book about trees. What's not to love? Now, don't mistake this for some boring tome. Each tree's entry includes some fun facts along with the usual growing region/size/etc and the reader is also treated to beautiful illustrations for each entry. If I had a coffee table, I'd happily leave a copy of this book on it to be enjoyed by visitors!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this lovely book! All comments are my own, unbiased opinion.

This book is fabulous, not only is the art work beautiful, but the information about each tree is very informative and quite fascinating.
The information would capture the interest of the least likely person - well written, well laid out, followed with a page filled with wonderful artistry of component of the tree.
The trees are from all over the world in origin, and are absolutely beautiful

Lovely graphic book, I really enjoyed learning more about trees in this urban arboreal. We really see how much the graphics are important and I think it is a beautiful book.

I enjoyed reading this book. This is a travel book through trees. Each tree is beautifully presented in the city where is grows. It also includes a short history of the tree and illustrations. The book is easy to read and offers a lot of information. You can travel around the world through trees. It will also encourage to notice the trees as you travel. This book will make a wonderful gift. Enjoy

A very interesting book, but one that went 60% over my head. Though if you are into trees and plants and know a bit about them and like reading anything related to them, then this one is for you. But if not, then you can totally do without reading this book, unless you're like me and love learning about new things- then this book is really good for you as it'll teach you a lot of things.

If you like trees and you enjoy beautiful photos you'll enjoy looking at this book. It features information about trees put in place for cities and towns to help beautify as well as help with clean air. There is a purpose of each tree and this is not only a beautiful book, but educational too.

Urban Arboreal by Michael Jordan and Kelly Louise Judd takes a look at the many trees that share our cities and suburbs. Humans need trees. We need them to live. We need them as our connection point to nature. Our ancestors came from the forests. They were our first home, and most people do better for having trees around, even if it's only on lawns or verges, or sidewalk beds. This little book is a modern compendium of those trees able to flourish in a city environment. Nearly 100 different trees are mentioned. Each tree has an info page and a page of full-colour print plates. It was neat to read about the individual trees, with their interesting facts. The pictures were pretty cool too, and gave the book an old-timey feel. Recommended for urban landscapes, nature lovers, and dendrophiles.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Have you ever walked down a city street and wondered about that beautiful tree on the corner? This book will help you learn more, including the origin, climate, and history of urban trees. Instead of photographs, it features gorgeous, full-color botanical drawings of each type of tree. I felt like a 19th-century scholar paging through an old-fashioned textbook (in a good way).

The only thing I didn't like is that the book is laid out alphabetically by tree name, so it would be difficult to look for trees by, for example, needle/leaf type, native region, etc. You'll need to figure out the name of the species before you can look it up.

Beautiful illustrations and I loved the idea. Overall it was just slightly too dry for me and felt like a laundry list versus a celebration of trees.

Trees are one of the few things that everyone is interested in, whether wondering what kind of tree or how it managed to grow in the middle of the sidewalk. After living in one place for 30 years, I knew my local trees, but none outside. This book gave me some fascinating looks at local trees in other places. The illustrations are helpful. I can see these growing and thriving. A general interest book for that person who loves trees or who has everything.

This book truly is a "glossary" with a page-long description for each of about 70 trees that are considered to be urban trees. Each description is faced with drawings, often in an artistic arrangement, of various parts of the tree (leaves, fruits, seeds, flowers). The descriptions focus primarily on the use of that species in particular urban environments, the physical appearance of the tree, its benefits, and other notes of interest.

As a botanist and gardener, I'd find any book on trees interesting. But, I'm struggling to figure out who would be the target audience for this book. It could be a basic reference (though not really enough information for each tree) for someone charged with selecting trees for an urban project. I can't really see a typical urban homeowner using it. The artwork is spectacular, and I might be tempted just to get it for that!