Trees: A Closer Look

Nancy Hugo at Richmond's Ginter Garden

Armchair Adventures

for June 10, 2012

by Paul Sullivan

Tree Secrets

            There seem to be two sorts of people who love nature. I call them the listers and the learners.

            Nancy Hugo graduated long ago from being a lister-checking off this kind of tree and that. The author and outdoor educator turned her love for trees into a passion to show others what a world of wonder grows in every single one of them.

            Hugo and photographer Robert Llewellyn have doubled down from their beautiful book, "Remarkable Trees of Virginia," which she co-authored with Jeff Kirwan, to produce "Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees."

            I met Hugo this week at-appropriately enough-Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond. Her knowledge and love of trees and of the broader natural world is contagious.

            Whether it is trees, birds, wildflowers, reptiles or mammals, geology or any of a dozen or more popular natural realms that attracts us, curiosity eventually leads many of us beyond mere taxonomy-the naming of species or types seen. We simply want to learn more about what we are looking at.

            And as she so convincingly shows, the deeper we look into the world of these outsize plants called trees, the more we see.

            And so it was with Nancy Ross Hugo, a Richmond native who divides her time between Ashland and Buckingham County-the latter where she and husband John operate a nature education program and retreat center.

            In "Seeing Trees," she not only describes what to look for upon closer examination, but all about the intricate elements that allow trees to grow, reproduce, survive assorted trials and the stages of life that they pass through. It is an incredible story, differing for each species.

            The core of this story is the detailed look that she and Llewellyn take of 10 trees, nine of them well-known to any outdoor Virginian, and one introduced variety, the wonderfully strange Ginkgo.

            I perused these probing accounts of the inner lives of the American Beech, American Sycamore, Black Walnut, Eastern Red Cedar, Red Maple, Southern Magnolia, Tulip Poplar, White Oak and White Pine and the gingko, continually amazed that there could be so much to discover about each.

            Everyone has a favorite tree, I suppose. I have two, actually, the American Elm and the beech. At one point I had a single example of each in my tree-covered yard-at least until Dutch Elm disease took my beloved elm.

            My beech remains, though, and after rediscovering its inner beauties, thanks to Hugo and Llewellyn, I will revisit it for a closer look. I had no idea, for instance, that this tree produces a delicate seedling with two tiny fan-shaped leaves; that I will have to search closely for them in the woods at just about this time of year. It will be done-this day.

            I cannot lay claim to a black walnut, unfortunately, but this handsome tree and its appetizing nuts have always fascinated. I know where there is a grand old walnut, and each fall when the thick-hulled nuts fall, I grab a few handfuls to take home. According to Hugo, most commercial walnuts are collected from wild trees, chiefly from Missouri. And I won't give it away, but if you're wondering, she gives some pretty good clues how to get at that nut, which nature has gone overboard to protect.

            Despite her voluminous store of the lore of trees, Hugo insists she is not a tree scientist. She sees herself, instead, as a translator, in that world between science and the curious layman, bridging the gap from the former to the latter.

            With the crucial assistance of the most beautiful and instructive photos of the inner workings of trees that I have ever laid eyes on, she has done a masterful job in, "Seeing Trees."

            Spend a few hours in this book and you will never again view a tree in quite the same way.