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Carregando... Willowde Alison Syme
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Drooping lazily over waterways, shading gardens, guarding hedgerows--the willow tree is a poetically formed plant, but also a practical one. For millennia, the wood of the willow has been used for baskets, furniture, fences, and toys, while finding its place in the watercolors of Monet, Shakespearean tragedies, Hans Christian Andersen, and The Lord of the Rings. Telling the willow's rich and multilayered tale, Alison Syme explores its presence in literature, art, and human history. Syme examines the manifold practical uses of the tree, discussing the application of its bark in medicines, its production as an energy crop that produces biofuel and charcoal, and its employment for soil stabilization and other environmental protection schemes. But despite all the functional uses of willows, she argues, we must also heed the lessons they teach about living, dying, and enriching our world. Looking at the roles that willows have played in folklore, religion, and art, she parses their connections to grief and joy, toil and play, necessity and ornament. Filled with one hundred images, Willow is a seamless account of the singular place the willow holds in our culture. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)634.97238Technology Agriculture & related technologies Fruits; Orchards; Vineyards Forestry Trees Hardwoods WillowClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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I was well aware of the medicinal properties of willow bark and how it was the original source of salicylic acid (aspirin) but not really so aware of the importance of polling of willows in Europe. I was well aware of polled cattle (no horns) but had not connected the polling of willow trees with the same term. The polled willows ...which certainly make the trees seem ugly in the winter and were a source of inspiration for the likes of Arthur Rackham's rather frightening figures in his illustrations of fairy tales....are a major resource for handicrafts and for farmers of old. In fact, I think, we might have had a wooden rake made up from polled willows when I lived in Spain.
Having lived in Asia for some time and travelled around Asia a bit I have to compare the use of bamboo in Asia with the use of willow in Europe ....and particularly England. And, with the interesting structure "Auerworldpalast, 1998 willow, I am reminded of an Australian group called Bambuko who specialised in building huge three dimensional constructions/sculptures out of bamboo. (I think they build a huge gateway to some festival in Berlin). Certainly the material lends itself to construction and bamboo has properties that elude willow. (One is rigid and one is flexible). I found myself wondering about that flexibility. Clearly it must have something to do with the way the cellulose vertical fibres are laid down....I guess they are not especially dense...and my own experience with the sudden breakage of the willow indicates that the fibres maybe don't overlap as much as they do in other trees.
All in all, a fairly satisfying book. Maybe a bit too encyclopaedic in some ways .....kind-of listing ad nauseam some of the aspects of willows. But happy to give it 4 stars. ( )