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Tree Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Arboreal Lives
An hourly guide that spotlights twenty-four trees as they root, flower, and host diverse forest life.
In this short book, treetop explorer Meg Lowman guides us through a global forest. Each chapter of Tree Day introduces a single tree during a single hour, highlighting twenty-four sylvian species from around the world.
In the dark of Yemen’s night, it is too early to see the red sap from which the dragon’s blood tree gets its name. But if we watch closely, we will see nocturnal geckos carry the trees’ pollen in their snouts. Later, in the Pacific Northwest, we climb the world’s tallest species, the coastal redwood. The morning fog is a reminder that redwoods absorb water through their roots and canopies, helping them survive such heights. The sun is already low in the sky on an autumn afternoon. Given the darkness of this New England forest, the sugar maple’s leaves have stopped producing chlorophyll that converts light into energy—and green gives way to vivid crimson foliage. After many hours of boiling, the maple sap makes delicious maple syrup. As the sun sets in Mexico, we observe the origin of another treat, chocolate. The cocoa tree’s flowers sprout along its trunk and branches, allowing easy access for tiny insects like midges that pollinate the tree and start the process of making delicious food for humans, monkeys, bats, and squirrels. By the end of our tree day, we will understand that trees are the silent caretakers of our planet, providing us with medicines, foods, machinery for making fresh water and oxygen, and more.
For each hour, celebrated artist Thibaud Hérem has depicted these trees with gorgeous pen and ink illustrations. Working together to narrate and illustrate these unique moments in time, Lowman and Hérem have created an engaging read that is a perfect way to spend an hour or two—and a true gift for anyone who has ever looked up at a tree in wonder.
In this short book, treetop explorer Meg Lowman guides us through a global forest. Each chapter of Tree Day introduces a single tree during a single hour, highlighting twenty-four sylvian species from around the world.
In the dark of Yemen’s night, it is too early to see the red sap from which the dragon’s blood tree gets its name. But if we watch closely, we will see nocturnal geckos carry the trees’ pollen in their snouts. Later, in the Pacific Northwest, we climb the world’s tallest species, the coastal redwood. The morning fog is a reminder that redwoods absorb water through their roots and canopies, helping them survive such heights. The sun is already low in the sky on an autumn afternoon. Given the darkness of this New England forest, the sugar maple’s leaves have stopped producing chlorophyll that converts light into energy—and green gives way to vivid crimson foliage. After many hours of boiling, the maple sap makes delicious maple syrup. As the sun sets in Mexico, we observe the origin of another treat, chocolate. The cocoa tree’s flowers sprout along its trunk and branches, allowing easy access for tiny insects like midges that pollinate the tree and start the process of making delicious food for humans, monkeys, bats, and squirrels. By the end of our tree day, we will understand that trees are the silent caretakers of our planet, providing us with medicines, foods, machinery for making fresh water and oxygen, and more.
For each hour, celebrated artist Thibaud Hérem has depicted these trees with gorgeous pen and ink illustrations. Working together to narrate and illustrate these unique moments in time, Lowman and Hérem have created an engaging read that is a perfect way to spend an hour or two—and a true gift for anyone who has ever looked up at a tree in wonder.
- GenresNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
Published September 10, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 27, 2026
A nice approach to describing the many facets of these trees and the many excellent drawings provide the necessary details to make each story complete.
Here are some excerpts:
Fig Trees
"Fig trees are not only important to humans; they’re also crucial for biodiversity and ecosystem health. Millions of plant and animal species depend on them. Some animals pollinate figs, some animals eat their fruits, and some animals eat the fig eaters. Most of this biodiversity roosts in the tree at night. From flying foxes in Australia, scarlet macaws in South America, and langurs"
American Beech
"An hour later, a brief lull allowed a new voice to take center stage. From the shaded beech understory branches, its flutelike song and resplendent trills filled every hollow of the forest, sending chills down my spine. The other birds paused, as if paying tribute to this exquisite soloist. Henry David Thoreau once said that “this bird is an elixir to my eyes and a fountain of youth to all my senses.” Its speckled breast and reddish-brown back seem a most ordinary costume for the star of the show, but perhaps this coloration serves as excellent camouflage for a nesting parent. Anyone who is fortunate enough to hear the wood thrush (or its cousin, the hermit thrush) will remember that moment forever…Before the sun rises is the best time to sit under a beech tree. Not only does the dawn chorus serenade listeners, but the prospect of a leafy breakfast bar also entices many other creatures to visit the canopy. Beech foliage is home to insects such as sucking aphids, chewing beetles and caterpillar larvae, and wasps, which make galls—bumps on the leaf surface—to lay eggs. These invertebrates become, in turn, six-legged meals for the many small birds. On the forest floor, small mammals forage for fallen nuts and foliage. But don’t stay too long: After sunrise, you may become breakfast yourself, as both mosquitoes and midges actively seek human donors. At the end of the hour, I gladly retreat indoors to sip my morning coffee."
Great Kapok
"Great kapok trees have many important applications—medicinal, mechanical, and material. In the Amazon, some people use their leaves to treat lumbago, fatigue, diarrhea, scabies, and heart ailments; their bark to relieve constipation; and their roots to cure dysentery, leprosy, and hypertension. Some boil their new shoots to make a contraceptive or their wood to remedy hernias, gonorrhea, edema, asthma, toothaches, stomachaches, and wounds. And others consume their sap to manage headaches, coughs, eye infections, stomach parasites, and symptoms of mental illness. Many Indigenous people, including from the Muijana tribe that lives near my Amazon canopy walkway, use the kapok’s silk to give their blowgun darts an aerodynamic thrust. Kapok cotton has also traditionally been used as stuffing for mattresses and life jackets and is still harvested in Asia."
Obviously, 24 in all. A definite treat that can be tailored to any particular pace that the reader may choose.
Here are some excerpts:
Fig Trees
"Fig trees are not only important to humans; they’re also crucial for biodiversity and ecosystem health. Millions of plant and animal species depend on them. Some animals pollinate figs, some animals eat their fruits, and some animals eat the fig eaters. Most of this biodiversity roosts in the tree at night. From flying foxes in Australia, scarlet macaws in South America, and langurs"
American Beech
"An hour later, a brief lull allowed a new voice to take center stage. From the shaded beech understory branches, its flutelike song and resplendent trills filled every hollow of the forest, sending chills down my spine. The other birds paused, as if paying tribute to this exquisite soloist. Henry David Thoreau once said that “this bird is an elixir to my eyes and a fountain of youth to all my senses.” Its speckled breast and reddish-brown back seem a most ordinary costume for the star of the show, but perhaps this coloration serves as excellent camouflage for a nesting parent. Anyone who is fortunate enough to hear the wood thrush (or its cousin, the hermit thrush) will remember that moment forever…Before the sun rises is the best time to sit under a beech tree. Not only does the dawn chorus serenade listeners, but the prospect of a leafy breakfast bar also entices many other creatures to visit the canopy. Beech foliage is home to insects such as sucking aphids, chewing beetles and caterpillar larvae, and wasps, which make galls—bumps on the leaf surface—to lay eggs. These invertebrates become, in turn, six-legged meals for the many small birds. On the forest floor, small mammals forage for fallen nuts and foliage. But don’t stay too long: After sunrise, you may become breakfast yourself, as both mosquitoes and midges actively seek human donors. At the end of the hour, I gladly retreat indoors to sip my morning coffee."
Great Kapok
"Great kapok trees have many important applications—medicinal, mechanical, and material. In the Amazon, some people use their leaves to treat lumbago, fatigue, diarrhea, scabies, and heart ailments; their bark to relieve constipation; and their roots to cure dysentery, leprosy, and hypertension. Some boil their new shoots to make a contraceptive or their wood to remedy hernias, gonorrhea, edema, asthma, toothaches, stomachaches, and wounds. And others consume their sap to manage headaches, coughs, eye infections, stomach parasites, and symptoms of mental illness. Many Indigenous people, including from the Muijana tribe that lives near my Amazon canopy walkway, use the kapok’s silk to give their blowgun darts an aerodynamic thrust. Kapok cotton has also traditionally been used as stuffing for mattresses and life jackets and is still harvested in Asia."
Obviously, 24 in all. A definite treat that can be tailored to any particular pace that the reader may choose.
March 1, 2026
A quick, fun read full of "gee-whiz" facts about 24 trees from around the world. Full review to follow.
April 25, 2026
An important book that provides a nice introduction to various big trees of the world, how they’re disappearing like bison, and efforts to save them.
May 4, 2026
maybe a soft 4. this was disappointing! i feel like i didn't learn as much as frog day or bird day and the author talked about herself or other living things instead of the tree of the chapter.
May 15, 2026
A nice overview of some interesting trees Some highlights:
- a strangler fig tree
- red mangrove trees that live in salt water and naturally desalinates with is long staw like roots
- Gum trees that need fire to reproduce!
- a stinging tree that evolved to keep mammals away
- Dragon's Blood Tree which has blood red sap and is pollinated by a gecko species
- Ginkgo honorable mention
- Costal Redwoods absorb fog through their leaves, giving them extra water to grow that tall!
- a strangler fig tree
- red mangrove trees that live in salt water and naturally desalinates with is long staw like roots
- Gum trees that need fire to reproduce!
- a stinging tree that evolved to keep mammals away
- Dragon's Blood Tree which has blood red sap and is pollinated by a gecko species
- Ginkgo honorable mention
- Costal Redwoods absorb fog through their leaves, giving them extra water to grow that tall!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews