A tree for all time

摘要

Biographies seem to come in two sorts. The first is a dense compilation of deeds and misdeeds, dates and details of the dead; the second, a hagi-ography of celebrities still alive and kicking. Ginkgo is neither. Its subject should by rights be dead, but having outlasted the dinosaurs, is still very much with us. This biography of the ginkgo tree offers a potent mix of science, history and culture, exploring how plants have changed our lives and our planet. And Peter Crane, a palaeo-botanist by trade and all-round botanist by nature, is the perfect person to tell the tale.