Trees are one of humanity’s most constant and most varied companions. From India’s sacred banyan tree to the fragrant cedar of Lebanon, they offer us sanctuary and inspirationnot to mention the raw materials for everything from aspirin to maple syrup.

In Around the World in 80 Trees, expert Jonathan Drori uses plant science to illuminate how trees play a role in every part of human life, from the romantic to the regrettable. Stops on the trip include the lime trees of Berlin’s Unter den Linden boulevard, which intoxicate amorous Germans and hungry bees alike, the swankiest streets in nineteenth-century London, which were paved with Australian eucalyptus wood, and the redwood forests of California, where the secret to the trees’ soaring heights can be found in the properties of the tiniest drops of water.

Each of these strange and true talespopulated by self-mummifying monks, tree-climbing goats and ever-so-slightly radioactive nutsis illustrated by Lucille Clerc, taking the reader on a journey that is as informative as it is beautiful.