Body Language of Trees: A Handbook for Failure Analysis

by Claus Mattheck, Helge Breloer, Robert Strouts

This book is dedicated to the potential hazards of trees. It shows the reader how a tree breaks, why it breaks, why perhaps it breaks too soon, and how it gives out a warning. In most cases the tree gives out a silent sign in its body language. It draws attention to many types of potential fracture points by producing symptoms. This book introduces the reader to this body language, and teaches the reader how to interpret and evaluate these symptoms biomechanically. This book provides new and needed information with diagrams. Readers should be able to understand the trees around them better, to recognise their warnings and to assess their safety more reliably.

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

Claus Mattheck is a professor for materials science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Among other things, he developed the Visual Tree Assessment method for examining trees based on their external appearance.