“What are the best books about Trees?” We looked at 193 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
Trees, we literally can’t live without them.
Learn and read about our leafy Earthmates with our list of books made from them about them. The top 15 books, all appearing on 2 or more lists, are below with images, descriptions, and links to buy. The remaining titles, as well as the lists we used to create our article with, can be found alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Lists It Appears On:
The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness — in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
Lists It Appears On:
By moonlight in the quiet forest, a young boy and his family decorate their favorite tree with popcorn, apples, tangerines, and sunflower-seed balls as a gift for the animals of the woods.
Lists It Appears On:
Lois Ehlert uses watercolor collage and pieces of actual seeds, fabric, wire, and roots in this innovative and rich introduction to the life of a tree. A special glossary explains how roots absorb nutrients, what photosynthesis is, how sap circulates, and other facts about trees.
Lists It Appears On:
“Are trees social beings? In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.
After learning about the complex life of trees, a walk in the woods will never be the same again.
“
Lists It Appears On:
“Unless someone like you…cares a whole awful lot…nothing is going to get better…It’s not.”
Long before saving the earth became a global concern, Dr. Seuss, speaking through his character the Lorax, warned against mindless progress and the danger it posed to the earth’s natural beauty. “
Lists It Appears On:
This book about nature and the changing seasons focuses on a young boy and a very special apple tree. In Gail Gibbons’s bright illustrations, Arnold collects apple blossoms in spring, builds a tree house in summer, makes apple pie and cider in the fall, and hangs strings of popcorn and berries for the birds in winter, among other seasonal activities. Includes a recipe for apple pie and a description of how an apple cider press works.
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
David Allen Sibley, the preeminent bird-guide author and illustrator, now applies his formidable skills of identification and illustration to the trees of North America. Monumental in scope but small enough to take into the field, The Sibley Guide to Trees is an astonishingly elegant guide to a complex subject. It condenses a huge amount of information about tree identification more than has ever been collected in a single book into a logical, accessible, easy-to-use format. With more than 4,100 meticulous, exquisitely detailed paintings, the Guide highlights the often subtle similarities and distinctions between more than 600 tree species native trees as well as many introduced species. No other guide has ever made field identification so clear.
Lists It Appears On:
“Hidden away in foggy, uncharted rain forest valleys in Northern California are the largest and tallest organisms the world has ever sustained–the coast redwood trees, Sequoia sempervirens. Ninety-six percent of the ancient redwood forests have been destroyed by logging, but the untouched fragments that remain are among the great wonders of nature. The biggest redwoods have trunks up to thirty feet wide and can rise more than thirty-five stories above the ground, forming cathedral-like structures in the air. Until recently, redwoods were thought to be virtually impossible to ascend, and the canopy at the tops of these majestic trees was undiscovered. In The Wild Trees, Richard Preston unfolds the spellbinding story of Steve Sillett, Marie Antoine, and the tiny group of daring botanists and amateur naturalists that found a lost world above California, a world that is dangerous, hauntingly beautiful, and unexplored.
The canopy voyagers are young–just college students when they start their quest–and they share a passion for these trees, persevering in spite of sometimes crushing personal obstacles and failings. They take big risks, they ignore common wisdom (such as the notion that there’s nothing left to discover in North America), and they even make love in hammocks stretched between branches three hundred feet in the air.
The deep redwood canopy is a vertical Eden filled with mosses, lichens, spotted salamanders, hanging gardens of ferns, and thickets of huckleberry bushes, all growing out of massive trunk systems that have fused and formed flying buttresses, sometimes carved into blackened chambers, hollowed out by fire, called “fire caves.” Thick layers of soil sitting on limbs harbor animal and plant life that is unknown to science. Humans move through the deep canopy suspended on ropes, far out of sight of the ground, knowing that the price of a small mistake can be a plunge to one’s death.”
Lists It Appears On:
Trees are vital to the healthy functioning of the global ecosystem and unparalleled in the range of materials they provide for human use. This volume is a comprehensive introduction to the natural history of trees, with information on all aspects of tree biology and ecology in easy-to-read and concise language. Peter Thomas uncovers fascinating insights into these ubiquitous plants, addressing in an illuminating way questions such as how trees are designed, how they grow and reproduce, and why they eventually die. Written for a nontechnical audience, the book is nonetheless rigorous in its treatment and a valuable source of reference for beginning students as well as interested lay readers.
Lists It Appears On:
Twenty years ago Chelsea Green published the first trade edition of The Man Who Planted Trees, a timeless eco-fable about what one person can do to restore the earth. The hero of the story, Elzéard Bouffier, spent his life planting one hundred acorns a day in a desolate, barren section of Provence in the south of France. The result was a total transformation of the landscape-from one devoid of life, with miserable, contentious inhabitants, to one filled with the scent of flowers, the songs of birds, and fresh, flowing water.
Lists It Appears On:
“Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy.’
So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.
Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk…and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.
This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another’s capacity to love in return.”
Lists It Appears On:
All 933 identification pictures are full-color photos of significant details of virtually all native trees and many cultivated species as you see them in their natural habitat.
Lists It Appears On:
“Tree peepers everywhere will enjoy these two guides which explore the incredible environment of our country’s forests-including seasonal features, habitat, range, and lore. Nearly 700 species of trees are detailed in photographs of leaf shape, bark, flowers, fruit, and fall leaves — all can be quickly accessed making this the ideal field guide for any time of year.
Note: the Eastern Edition generally covers states east of the Rocky Mountains, while the Western Edition covers the Rocky Mountain range and all the states to the west of it.”
Lists It Appears On:
“Among American Canopy’s many captivating stories: the Liberty Trees, where colonists gathered to plot rebellion against the British; Henry David Thoreau’s famous retreat into the woods; the creation of New York City’s Central Park; the great fire of 1871 that killed a thousand people in the lumber town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin; the fevered attempts to save the American chestnut and the American elm from extinction; and the controversy over spotted owls and the old-growth forests they inhabited. Rutkow also explains how trees were of deep interest to such figures as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Teddy Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt, who oversaw the planting of some three billion trees nationally in his time as president.
Never before has anyone treated our country’s trees and forests as the subject of a broad historical study, and the result is an accessible, informative, and thoroughly entertaining read. Audacious in its four-hundred-year scope, authoritative in its detail, and elegant in its execution, American Canopy is perfect for history buffs and nature lovers alike and announces Eric Rutkow as a major new author of popular history.”
| # | Book | Author | Lists |
| (Books Appear On 1 List Each) | |||
| 16 | A B Cedar: An Alphabet of Trees | George Ella Lyon | Treetures |
| 17 | A Big Tree | Bruce Hiscock | Treetures |
| 18 | A Dictionary of Botanical Terms | Tree Source | |
| 19 | A Different Kingdom | Paul Kearney | Goodreads |
| 20 | A Natural History of Conifers | Aljos Farjon | Goodreads |
| 21 | A Natural History of Western Trees | Donald Culross Peattie | Goodreads |
| 22 | A New Tree Biology and Dictionary | Alex L. Shigo | Planned Forest |
| 23 | A Possible Tree | Josephine Haskell Aldridge | Treetures |
| 24 | A Society of Pines: An Introduction to the Pines Among Us | Shutes S. Robert | Goodreads |
| 25 | A Tree Is Growing | Arthur Dorros | Treetures |
| 26 | A Tree Is Nice | Janice May Udry | Treetures |
| 27 | A-Z of Plant Names | Tree Source | |
| 28 | A-Z of Tree Terms: A companion to British arboriculture | Tree Source | |
| 29 | Alien Plants. New Naturalist Series vol. 129 | Tree Source | |
| 30 | American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree | Susan Freinkel | Goodreads |
| 31 | An Introduction to Plant Structure and Development 2nd ed. | Tree Source | |
| 32 | Arboriculture: Integrated Management of Landscape Trees, Shrubs, and Vines | Thought Co. 2 | |
| 33 | Are Trees Alive? | Debbie S. Miller | Treetures |
| 34 | Atlas of Nevada Conifers: A Phytogeographic Reference | David Alan Charlet | Goodreads |
| 35 | Atlas of Woody Plant Stems – Evolution, Structure, and Environmental Modifications. | Tree Source | |
| 36 | Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees | Wess Pur | |
| 37 | Autumn Leaves | Ken Robbins | Treetures |
| 38 | Be A Friend To Trees | Patricia Lauber | Treetures |
| 39 | Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees | Nalini Nadkarni | Goodreads |
| 40 | Blue and Beautiful Planet Earth, Our Home | Ruth Rocha & Octavio Roth | Treetures |
| 41 | Cherry Tree | Ruskin Bond and Allan Eitzen | Delightful Childrens Books |
| 42 | Christmas Trees: Growing and Selling Trees, Wreaths, and Greens | Thought Co. 2 | |
| 43 | Collins Tree Guide | Owen Johnson & David Moore | Gabriel Hemery |
| 44 | Conifer Country | Michael Edward Kauffmann | Goodreads |
| 45 | Conifer Reproductive Biology | Tree Source | |
| 46 | Conifers of California | Ronald M. Lanner | Goodreads |
| 47 | Conifers of the Pacific Slope | Michael Edward Kauffmann | Goodreads |
| 48 | Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing the Trees | Jim Arnosky | Delightful Childrens Books |
| 49 | Dear Children of the Earth: A Letter From Home | Schim Schimmel | Treetures |
| 50 | Dirr’s Trees and Shrubs – an Illustrated Encyclopedia | Thought Co. 2 | |
| 51 | Eastern Deciduous Forest, Second Edition: Ecology and Wildlife Conservation | Richard H. Yahner | Forestry Degree |
| 52 | Environmental Science | G. Tyler Miller & Scott Spoolmans. | Forestry Degree |
| 53 | Essentials of Conservation Biology, Sixth Edition | Richard B. Primacks. | Forestry Degree |
| 54 | Eucalyptus | Murray Bail | Goodreads |
| 55 | Evaluating Tree Defects | Wess Pur | |
| 56 | Eyewitness Books: Tree | David Burnie | Treetures |
| 57 | Farewell To Shady Glade | Bill Peet | Treetures |
| 58 | Fernando’s Gift | Douglas Keister | Delightful Childrens Books |
| 59 | Flute’s Journey: The Life Of A Wood Thrush | Lynne Cherry | Treetures |
| 60 | For the Love of the Earth | P.K. Halinan | Treetures |
| 61 | Forest Ecology | Burton V. Barnes, Donald R. Zak, Shirley R. Denton & Stephen H. Spurrs. | Forestry Degree |
| 62 | Forest Ecology, 3rd Edition | James P. Kimmins | Forestry Degree |
| 63 | Forest Ecosystems | David A. Perry, Ram Oren & Stephen C. Hart | Forestry Degree |
| 64 | Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast | Robert Van Pelt | Goodreads |
| 65 | Forest Measurements | Thomas Eugene Avery & Harold Burkharts. | Forestry Degree |
| 66 | Forest Products and Wood Science: An Introduction, 5th Edition | Tree Source | |
| 67 | Guess What Trees Do? | Barbara Rinkoff | Treetures |
| 68 | Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets | USA Today | |
| 69 | How A Seed Grows | Helene Jordan | Treetures |
| 70 | How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World | Marjorie Priceman | Treetures |
| 71 | Howards End | E. M. Forster | Five Books |
| 72 | In praise of plants | Francis Hallé | Gabriel Hemery |
| 73 | In the Shadow of the Banyan | Vaddey Ratner | Conservation International |
| 74 | It Could Still Be A Tree | Allan Fowler | Treetures |
| 75 | Jack and the Meanstalk | Brian and Rebecca Wildsmith | Treetures |
| 76 | Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë | Five Books |
| 77 | Just A Dream | Chris Van Allsburg | Treetures |
| 78 | Land Plants – Trees: Advances in Botanical Research volume 74. | Tree Source | |
| 79 | Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-deficit Disorder | Richard Louv | Gabriel Hemery |
| 80 | Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions | G. Tyler Miller and Scott Spoolmans. | Forestry Degree |
| 81 | Long Live Earth | Meighan Morrison | Treetures |
| 82 | Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest | Lawrence S. Earley | Goodreads |
| 83 | Made for Each Other: A Symbiosis of Birds and Pines | Ronald M. Lanner | Goodreads |
| 84 | Manual of Leaf Architecture | Tree Source | |
| 85 | Mathematics for the Green Industry | Tree Source | |
| 86 | Maya and the Town That Loved a Tree | Kiki and Kathryn Shaw | Treetures |
| 87 | McBroom’s Wonderful One-Acre Farm | Sid Fleischman | Treetures |
| 88 | Meetings with Remarkable Trees | Thomas Pakenham | Goodreads |
| 89 | Modern Arboriculture | Wess Pur | |
| 90 | Mother Earth | Nancy Luenn | Treetures |
| 91 | My Life, My Trees | Richard St. Barbe Baker | Treetures |
| 92 | My Side of the Mountain | Jean Craighead | Treetures |
| 93 | Mythago Wood (Mythago Wood, #1) | Robert Holdstock | Goodreads |
| 94 | Native Trees for North American Landscapes | Thought Co. 2 | |
| 95 | New Tree Biology | Wess Pur | |
| 96 | Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems | Kristine O’Connell | Treetures |
| 97 | Once There Was A Tree | Natalia Romanova | Treetures |
| 98 | One Day In The Woods | Jean Craighead | Treetures |
| 99 | One Good Apple: Growing Food for the Sake of the Earth | Catherine Paladino | Treetures |
| 100 | Opportunities in Forestry Careers | Thought Co. 2 | |
| 101 | Outside and Inside Trees | Sandra Markle | Treetures |
| 102 | Oxford Dictionary of Biology 7th ed. | Tree Source | |
| 103 | Peach & Blue | Sarah S. Kilborne | Treetures |
| 104 | Peterson Field Guide Series: A Field Guide to Eastern Trees | George A. Petrides, Janet Wehr, Roger Tory Peterson | Thought Co. |
| 105 | Peterson Field Guide Series: A Field Guide to WesternTrees | George A. Petrides, Janet Wehr, Roger Tory Peterson | Thought Co. |
| 106 | Plant Names – A Guide to Botanical Nomenclature | Tree Source | |
| 107 | Plant Names Simplified | Tree Source | |
| 108 | Plant Strategies Veg. Processes | Tree Source | |
| 109 | Plant Structure: A Colour Guide (2nd Edition) | Tree Source | |
| 110 | Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai | Claire Nivola | Delightful Childrens Books |
| 111 | Plants – A Very Short Introduction | Tree Source | |
| 112 | Pruning Trees Near Electrical Utility Lines | Wess Pur | |
| 113 | Remarkable Trees of the World | Thomas Pakenham | Goodreads |
| 114 | Saving Planet Earth | Tony Juniper | Goodreads |
| 115 | Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants | Jane Goodalls. | Forestry Degree |
| 116 | Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees | Nancy Ross Hugo | Goodreads |
| 117 | Siddhartha | USA Today | |
| 118 | Sky Tree | Thomas Locker | Treetures |
| 119 | Song of the Trees | Mildred Taylor | Treetures |
| 120 | State of Wonder | Ann Patchett | Conservation International |
| 121 | Sylva: Or, a Discourse of Forest-Trees, and the Propagation of Timber in his Majesty’s Dominions | John Evelyn | Gabriel Hemery |
| 122 | TEACHERS IN THE FOREST: Essays from the last wilderness in Mississippi Headwaters Country | Barry W. Babcock | Goodreads |
| 123 | Ten Tall OakTrees | Richard Edwards | Treetures |
| 124 | The Ancient One | USA Today | |
| 125 | The Apartment House Tree | Bette Killion | Treetures |
| 126 | The Apple Pie Tree | Zoe Hall | Treetures |
| 127 | The Bible | USA Today | |
| 128 | The Biology and Management of Landscape Palms | Donald R. Hodel | Planned Forest |
| 129 | The Birthday Tree | Paul Fleischman | Treetures |
| 130 | The Blossom On The Bough: A Book Of Trees | Anne Ophelia | Treetures |
| 131 | The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World | Michael Pollan | Goodreads |
| 132 | The Chocolate Tree | Allen M. Young | Treetures |
| 133 | The CODIT Principle | Dirk Dujeseifken and Walter Liese | Planned Forest |
| 134 | The Empty Pot | Demi | Treetures |
| 135 | The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers, and Defenders of the Amazon | Susanna B. Hecht & Alexander Cockburn | Forestry Degree |
| 136 | The Glory of the Tree: An Illustrated History | Noël Kingsbury | Goodreads |
| 137 | The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed | John Vaillant | Goodreads |
| 138 | The Grandpa Tree | Mike Donahue | Treetures |
| 139 | The Great Kapok Tree | Lynne Cherry | Treetures |
| 140 | The Great Paper Caper | Oliver Jeffers | Delightful Childrens Books |
| 141 | The Hollowing (Mythago Wood, #4) | Robert Holdstock | Goodreads |
| 142 | The Last Child in the Woods | Richard Louv | Conservation International |
| 143 | The Lie Tree | Frances Hardinge | Five Books |
| 144 | The Life & Love of Trees | Lewis Blackwell | Goodreads |
| 145 | The Little House | Virginia Lee Burton | Treetures |
| 146 | The Little Prince | USA Today | |
| 147 | The Lord of the Rings | USA Today | |
| 148 | The Mountains of California | John Muir | Goodreads |
| 149 | The People Who Hugged Trees: An Environmental Folktale adapted | Deborah Lee Rose | Treetures |
| 150 | The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks | Nancy McArthur | Treetures |
| 151 | The Rainstick: A Fable | Sandra Chisholm Robinson | Treetures |
| 152 | The Sequoias of Yosemite National Park | H.T. Harvey | Goodreads |
| 153 | The Shy Tulip Murders (Claire Sharples, #3) | Rebecca Rothenberg | Goodreads |
| 154 | The Sign of the Beaver | Elizabeth George | Treetures |
| 155 | The silviculture of trees used in British forestry | Peter Savill | Gabriel Hemery |
| 156 | The Tenth Good Thing About Barney | Judith Viorst | Treetures |
| 157 | The Tree | Judy Hindley | Treetures |
| 158 | The Tree | Pascale De Bourgoing & Gallimard Jeunesse | Treetures |
| 159 | The Tree Book: For Kids and Their Grown-ups | Gina Ingoglia | Delightful Childrens Books |
| 160 | The Tree Farmer, | Chuck Leavell and Nicholas Craotta | Treetures |
| 161 | The Tree in the Moon | Rosalind Kerven | Treetures |
| 162 | The Trees | Conrad Richter | Five Books |
| 163 | The Unpeopled Season: Journal from a North Country Wilderness | Daniel J. Rice | Goodreads |
| 164 | The Urban Tree Book | Thought Co. 2 | |
| 165 | The Woodland Steward: A Practical Guide to the Management of Small Forests | Thought Co. 2 | |
| 166 | The World Without Us | Alan Weisman | Conservation International |
| 167 | The Wump World | Bill Peet | Treetures |
| 168 | This Side of a Wilderness | Daniel J. Rice | Goodreads |
| 169 | Timberline: Mountain and Arctic Forest Frontiers | Stephen F. Arno | Goodreads |
| 170 | To Kill a Mockingbird | USA Today | |
| 171 | Tokyo Digs a Garden | Jon-Erik Lappano | Goodreads |
| 172 | Tree Basics | Wess Pur | |
| 173 | Tree Bear’s Adventures In Learning | June A. Bradlaw | Treetures |
| 174 | Tree Finder: A Manual for the Identification of Trees | May T. Watts | Thought Co. |
| 175 | Tree of Life: The World of the African Baobab | Barbara Bash | Treetures |
| 176 | Tree Pruning Basics | Wess Pur | |
| 177 | Tree Pruning Photo Guide | Wess Pur | |
| 178 | Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest | Jim Balog | Goodreads |
| 179 | Trees | Fandex Family Field Guides | Treetures |
| 180 | Trees | Ivan M. Anatta | Treetures |
| 181 | Trees | Rena K. Kirkpatrick | Treetures |
| 182 | Trees – 3rd Edition | Tree Source | |
| 183 | Trees – A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Structure | Tree Source | |
| 184 | Trees: A Visual Guide | Tony Rodd | Goodreads |
| 185 | Trees: Their Use, Management, Cultivation and Biology – RRP | Tree Source | |
| 186 | Turkey’s Gift to the People | Ani Rucki | Treetures |
| 187 | What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses | Daniel Chamovitz | Planned Forest |
| 188 | Where Once There Was A Wood | Denise Fleming | Treetures |
| 189 | White Waters and Black | Gordon MacCreagh | Conservation International |
| 190 | Wildwood: a journey through trees | Roger Deakin | Gabriel Hemery |
| 191 | Winter Trees | Carole Gerber and Leslie Evans | Delightful Childrens Books |
| 192 | Within These woods: a collection of Northwoods nature essays, with original illustrations | Timothy Goodwin | Goodreads |
| 193 | Woodland management: a practical guide | Christopher Starr | Gabriel Hemery |
| Source | Article |
| Conservation International | Your forest reading list: 6 must-read books about trees |
| Delightful Childrens Books | 9 Children’s Books About Trees |
| Five Books | Tracy Chevalier recommends the best books on Trees |
| Forestry Degree | Our Top 12 Books on Forest Conservation |
| Gabriel Hemery | Top ten tree books |
| Goodreads | Best Books About Trees |
| Planned Forest | TREE SCIENCE BOOKS |
| Thought Co. | Top 6 Tree Identification Guides Reviewed |
| Thought Co. 2 | 10 Best Tree and Forestry Reference Books and Guides |
| Tree Source | Tree Biology & Plant Science |
| Treetures | Pick from the Following Books about Trees |
| USA Today | The best trees in literature |
| Wess Pur | Tree Pruning and Tree Health Books |
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