The Genius of Trees

How They Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World

Author Harriet Rix

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The mesmerizing, mind-expanding global story of how trees have learned to use the soil, air, water, plants, fungi, fire, animals and people around them to shape our world—possessing an agency beyond anything we might have imagined.

Taking us on an awe-inspiring journey through deep history and across the globe, The Genius of Trees restores trees to their rightful position not as victims of our negligence but as ingenious, stunningly inventive agents in a grand ecological narrative. Some have been using fire as a reproductive tool since prehistoric times. Others have gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure their fruits reach large primates, who can spread their seeds over vast distances, while poisoning smaller and less useful mammals. Some can split solid…

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September 9, 2025

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Harriet Rix is a tree science consultant who travels widely studying trees around the world. She was formerly based at the Tree Council, where she researched tree diseases and urban tree strategies. Rix holds a biochemistry degree from the University of Oxford and an MPhil in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. She was a London Library Emerging Writer, and her writing and photography have been published in the Financial Times, London Review of Books, and Times Literary Supplement, among others.