Offering fresh botanical insight, charm, and humor, the first memoir dedicated to a plant genus. A dying hybrid oak in Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens sets off on an imaginative search for its parents, and in doing so reveals the extraordinary diversity of the genus Quercus . From the Himalaya to Mexico, from knee-high scrub to rainforest giants, more than four hundred species of oak shape landscapes, cultures, and histories. Their leaves can blaze red and gold, acorns can be the size of a hand, and while only a few cross the equator to the south, others survive in the mountains up to four thousand meters above sea level. Including specially drawn illustrations, this witty and uniquely eccentric memoir shows there is far more to oaks than the familiar English tree, inviting readers to look anew at one of the world's most beloved plants.