Trees are great storytellers and living historians of place. By paying attention to trees, you can begin to hear the stories they tell, the histories they document, and the places they describe. They shape their surroundings even as they themselves are shaped by their environment. India has long been a land of remarkable trees—known for their elegant or majestic presence, colourful or verdant foliage, attractive or fragrant flowers, and their panoplies of fruit.

The set of fifty native species in this book, representing India’s rich tapestry of tree species, takes readers on an extraordinary journey spanning the subcontinent, through varied landscapes and lives. Building on the foundations of knowledge established by botany and taxonomy, this book unravels the intricacies of ecology and natural history of trees to appreciate their connections to the places they inhabit, to other species, and to people. It traces how changes in the world wrought by people influence trees and ultimately the people themselves.