Introduction

Abstract

Terrestrial life forms made their move on land about 400 million years ago. Plants crossed the barrier between life in water to life in the atmosphere. With the invention of stable stems, plants overcame hydrological and mechanical problems. The construction of plant stems is the focus of this book. It demonstrates that nature created a framework in which plant stems evolved—annual herbs as well as century-old, 100 m-tall trees, from tropical to arctic environments.