Treasured Trees

Authors: Masumi Yamanaka, Christina Harrison, Martyn Rix. 120 pp. 280 x 242 mm. 40 colour botanical paintings. Hardback, ISBN 9781842465868, Kew Publishing 2015.

This book is a celebration of trees, with beautiful botanical art at its centrepiece, accompanied by an entertaining and informative text.

The paintings by Japanese artist Masumi Yamanaka illustrate the oldest and finest trees growing at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, showing the flowers and foliage and sometimes fruit at different stages throughout the year. This book accompanies the exhibition Kew’s Heritage Trees at The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew opening in Spring 2015.

These unique paintings are accompanied by the artist’s commentary on the process of painting each tree and her personal experience with them. Masumi also provides an artist’s preface, describing the progress of the paintings from sketch to finished work. The author’s preface is presented in English and Japanese. Some of the trees in Masumi’s portraits were planted in the early 18th century, together with more recently planted rarities collected from more current Kew expeditions. Many of these trees which are thriving in the living collections at Kew are now rare in the wild.

Christina Harrison provides an introductory chapter on the history of tree collecting and introduction, from the appearance of trees in the botanic gardens of 16th century Renaissance Europe, to the subsequent passion for plant hunting over the next few centuries, establishing trees as integral to garden design and landscaping. She also highlights the importance of trees today, from their practical applications to the sheer wonder of their beauty. Renowned author Martyn Rix provides detailed text to accompany each tree, describing the natural distribution and cultivation history, as well as other points of interest including uses and associated wildlife. This book is ideal for all those lovers of trees and botanical art, and celebrates the strong association many of us have with trees and their presence in the landscape.

Masumi Yamanaka is an award winning botanical artist currently based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Christina Harrison is the editor of Kew magazine and author of Kew’s Big Trees (Kew Publishing). Martyn Rix is a renowned horticulturalist, and author of many books including The Golden Age of Botanical Art (Andre Deutsch) and editor of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, published by Kew.

Treasured Trees by Masumi Yamanaka, with text by Christina Harrison, Martyn Rix and Tony Kirkham, won the runner up award for best exhibition catalogue at the Association of Cultural Enterprises (ACE) Best Product Awards on 1st March. We are delighted with this, especially as the book faced stiff completion from all the major UK museums and galleries, including the RA’s Ai Weiwei book (the winner), and the V&A’s Alexander McQueen’s book.