A natural history of conifers

Foreword / William G. Chaloner

Preface

[pt. 1]. Introduction to conifers

1. What are conifers?

2. The image problem with Christmas trees and hedges

3. Diversity upheld against the odds

4. Will we know all of them?

[pt. 2]. The systematics of conifers

5. Who is related to whom?

6. The fragmented tree of life, of phylogeny without a past

7. More genera, fewer species

8. The winnowing task of the monographer

9. A classification attempted once again

[pt. 3]. Conifers of the past

10. All or nothing about ancestors

11. The earliest conifers

12. Conifer heyday : the age of conifers

13. Decline to the present

[pt. 4]. The ecology of conifers

14. Conquering armies and vast empires

15. The fortresses of poverty

16. Outlive your neighbour and take his property

17. Imitating the almighty angiosperms

18. Facing the enemy

19. Climbing the giants

[pt. 5]. Conifer geography

20. A coniferous island in the tropics

21. Riding the continents

22. The success of dispersal

23. Relics to be discovered

24. Encircling the great eternal ocean

[pt. 6]. Conifers and people

25. The woods of the world and their uses

26. Clothing my estate

27. Conifers in and out of fashion

28. The other uses of conifers

[pt. 7]. Conifers and conservation

29. Extinction is forever

30. Why conifers in nature are important

31. A pine in a cage

32. The conifers that grow on nickel

33. Numbers and dots : evaluation of threats to species

34. Invasions

Appendix : A classification of extant conifer families to the genus level

Glossary

References

Index.