Fantastic Trees

by Edwin A. Menninger

A humorous but factual survey of unusual trees with strange habits such as changing sex, producing flowers and fruit underground, telling time, making noises, and creating their own rain, first published in 1967, and illustrated with numerous b&w photos. This updated edition contains a new foreword and a nomenclature update. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Nature

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 24, 1967

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of an accretion for the aborealiphiliac curiosity-seeker, since this covers, as must be clear, some of the more wackier upthrusts to be found on the earth. Menninger runs the gamut of weird-ass trees, gender-morphers, trees that attack, trees that seem to love, extremphilo trees, trees that smell bad, epiphytes, trees involved in symbiosis, and so on. The text can sometimes run into little more than semi-interesting lists, so the best bits are when Menninger actually delves into some detail on the trees involved. Plenty of B&W plates, sadly none in color in the edition I read, which made them a little duller than they have any right to be.

[Trisha Keiman]

I have a special connection with trees so this book absolutely caught my eye. It describes unusual trees from around the world and what makes them peculiar, trees that cannot live without animals, trees of peculiar behavior, trees shackled to fame by size, antiquit or superstition, and the rugged individualists. Some of the chapters described are 'trees that display affection' 'trees that do arithmetic' 'trees that tell time and predict the weather''man-eating tree''the oldest and biggest trees''trees with sexual curiosites''trees that are twisted inside''trees pollinated by bats''trees with sexy leaves''organ-pipe trees' and 'flowers and fruits underground.' The book was first published in 1967 and still continues to amaze readers. The book has a flavor of psychology to it!