Elderflora

Long before scientists began measuring them, people revered long-lived trees. Historian Jared Farmer shows that this reverence changed in the eighteenth century, when naturalists set out to find the oldest living things on Earth and determine their ages. This new work of dating trees drew travellers to visit ancient specimens and moved conservationists to protect sacred groves. Admiration also brought exploitation, as old-growth forests succumbed to imperial expansion and the industrial revolution.

Farmer follows this layered history from Lebanon to New Zealand and on to California. He gives voice to Indigenous peoples, religious figures, and contemporary scientists who study these elder trees at a moment of crisis. Looking ahead, he argues that a long future is still possible in a changing climate, but only if people take care of the young trees that might one day grow old.

The book pairs careful scholarship with lyrical writing as it examines the many roles ancient trees have played in the making of the modern world. It also asks why these trees may matter more now than ever before.

Along the way, Farmer considers what the survival of ancient trees can teach us and how our own behaviour would need to change so that the saplings planted today can become ancient themselves.