I am amazed at how little we really know about trees. I was taken on a boat trip up the Wikki River a tributary of the Berbice River and about 100 miles south of the Caribbean coast. My host, an aboriginal resident of the Wikki Reserve, grew up with Mother Nature. He pointed out trees serving a variety of purposes from healing cuts and bruises to alleviating dysentery. In a lake, our destination, he had me break open flowers of swamp plants, exposing one or two beetles which regularly sought shelter there.

One strange tree along the bank on the way back had 3 or 4 flared root extensions, flat wooded protrusions which I saw as an art form, particularly having irregular shapes if sections of the trunk were cut into ‘disks’.

Similarly in northern Ontario I was shown many forest plants and trees common to the native residents. Major usage has been medicinal, with leaves or fruit collected and boiled for food or medicine. In other parts of the world specific tree species have been prized for valuable services. Unfortunately many non-native industrial people saw trees only as wood products for their companies.

I was given a book (Lives of Trees, 2010) composed of chapters on many dominant trees, their history and accounts of various authors recorded through the years. Some at least I have encountered on projects around the world, often with uses new to me.

Trees of one of the commonest family were the Acacias. These were prominent in the Rift Valley of Kenya where I often watched long necked giraffe grazing foliage at the top of tree crowns and peering down at me curiously as I walked through their habitat. I have a carved stool from one tree and pictures of some very attractive desert individuals. The book noted Acacias were known locally as the ‘village pharmacy’ for their curative use for many maladies. It was interesting to note that in early years nails were carved from the very hard wood for ship-building.

While there are no Acacias in Canada we have one leguminous tree (Legumes have nitrogen fixing roots which improve soil fertility). Our black locust is known as a false Acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia), commonly planted in southern Ontario for reclamation of infertile sites.

One doesn’t usually equate trees and food production but farming of peaches and pears is a well established horticultural industry. Less well known has been the planting of nut trees and honey production from tree flowers. Orange blossom honey is a delicacy in the southern states and few of us are fortunate to experience basswood honey while coconuts and mangos are common fare in tropical countries.

I was fascinated by the use of Coconut husks tied to trees in Thailand as containers for production of orchids. Others include breadfruit and bananas though the latter palms are more shrubs than trees.

One interesting subject is the use of trees as protection for agricultural crops. Agroforestry is commonly practiced in many parts of the world. I visited an area in China where both shelterbelts and intercropping were common procedures. Gravillia robusta is grown in tea plantations as protection while our cocoa is grown with a cover Gliricidia robusta known in the tropics as Madre de Cacao (Mother of cocoa), a species also used for land reclamation. I have often wondered why we have under-used trees as protection from winds destroying fields of wheat in Canada.

Canada is certainly well known for its Maple syrup production but probably moreso for the beautiful fall colours of this species. Less known is the toffee made from Birch sap in western Canada and Alaska.

I was introduced to a mild White Birch wine fermented by a colleague for his winery. A strange use has been the development of silk from larvae feeding on the Mulberry tree.

Wood from trees around the world have had many uses. I can take great delight in owning many carvings from around the world i.e. rain tree from the Philippines, Mahogany from Thailand, South African Cedrella I have never ceased to be amazed at the wide variety of tree uses I have encountered globally.