What do you think?
Rate this book
Bark: The Formation, Characteristics, and Uses of Bark Around the World
The "skin" that covers trees is no less taken for granted than the sound of dogs. This volume, the first of its kind, details the formation, uses and characteristics of this remarkably varied element of nature. Publisher-turned-photographer Kjell Sandved is a naturalist at heart, but he approaches his subject with the eye of an artist. He has a feel for color that Gauguin would appreciate; his fascination with the shape and design of bark is evident throughout. Sandved discusses his use of natural light in an essay and asserts that the principles employed when shooting portraits are the same when photographing bark.
174 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1993
8 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 25, 2010
This book caught my eye in the library as an in depth look at something I was fairly interested in, and a subject you wouldn't necessarily expect to find a readable text on in that library. It's a fairly blandly written book, unfortunately. It reminds me of many things I read when I was younger, books intended to popularize a given subject but somehow end up removing from it all the joy of its uniqueness and turning it into something that doesn't sound like it had a human author.
I loved having my ideas of what bark and trees can be like and be for expanded, though. It is a shame, but I have given little thought to tree forms outside my own biome, temperate mixed forest. Seeing pictures of exotic barks went a way towards remedying that.
The book did clear up several misconceptions I'd had about bark/wood growth and anatomy. Bark grows from the cork cambium, which is just outside the phloem layer. Phloem, rather than carrying "water" or "food" - both of which I'd mistakenly thought in the past - carries the carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis from the leaves down to the cambiums and roots and any other growing, live tissues. The phloem layer, called the inner bark, grows from the vascular cambium, which also produces the living ring of xylem in the woody core of the tree. The xylem does not move "food" or "water" either - it transports water and soil nutrients up from the roots.
These two things, having my bark horizons expanded and having my anatomical understanding deepened, are why I picked up the book, and thus it was a thoroughly worthwhile short read. However, it was a bit disappointing that it wasn't more interesting than it was.
I loved having my ideas of what bark and trees can be like and be for expanded, though. It is a shame, but I have given little thought to tree forms outside my own biome, temperate mixed forest. Seeing pictures of exotic barks went a way towards remedying that.
The book did clear up several misconceptions I'd had about bark/wood growth and anatomy. Bark grows from the cork cambium, which is just outside the phloem layer. Phloem, rather than carrying "water" or "food" - both of which I'd mistakenly thought in the past - carries the carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis from the leaves down to the cambiums and roots and any other growing, live tissues. The phloem layer, called the inner bark, grows from the vascular cambium, which also produces the living ring of xylem in the woody core of the tree. The xylem does not move "food" or "water" either - it transports water and soil nutrients up from the roots.
These two things, having my bark horizons expanded and having my anatomical understanding deepened, are why I picked up the book, and thus it was a thoroughly worthwhile short read. However, it was a bit disappointing that it wasn't more interesting than it was.
Displaying 1 of 1 review