The Life of an Oak

The Life of an Oak: An Intimate Portrait is written and photographed by Glenn Keator, and illustrated by Susan Bazell (1940-2012). The book was co-published by Heyday Books and the California Oak Foundation in 1998. Keator is a freelance botanist, teacher, and author here in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has taught at Merritt College, San Francisco Botanical Garden (formerly Strybing Arboretum), Regional Parks Botanic Garden (Tilden), and California Academy of Science. Keator is especially interested in identifying and gardening with California native plants. He has written many books, including the popular Designing California Native Gardens: The Plant Community Approach to Artful, Ecological Gardens. 

The first half of The Life of an Oak covers Oak Architecture, where Keator describes the ecosystem and structure of the oak tree; and Oak Life Cycle, where he describes the journey from flowers and acorns to the long-lived oak in the landscape. I don't think I've ever read a better description of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and its elegant process of converting sun to energy. Bazell's botanical illustrations and charts beautifully augment the text by Keator. The second half of the book covers Oak Diversity, Relationships & Evolution and Oak Habitats. I especially enjoyed Keator's description of oaks and trees that are called oaks because of similar characteristics (such as catkins and acorns) but are not genetically related to oaks. Also interesting were the descriptions of diverse oak habitats found around the world, from the Americas, to Southeast Asia, China, Australia, and Europe.

I had the pleasure of taking Keator's Mediterranean Plants ID class at Merritt College some years back, and joining his field trip to University of California, Santa Cruz Arboretum to view exotic plants from Australia and New Zealand. I was interested to learn more from his writings about oak trees in general, and Quercus agrifolia in particular, since we have a large one in our yard. I was also intrigued to learn that the oldest oak fossil ever found is from North America, but the biggest cradle of oak diversity today occurs in Southern China and Southeast Asia. I'm sure many discoveries have been made about oak genetics and evolution in the last 25 years, but I still recommend The Life of an Oak as a wonderful introduction to the mighty oak tree.