You will get immediately curious when you see hundreds of beautiful color-microphotographs. With the presentation of over 400 anatomical characters of wood and bark in stems of hundreds of species, the book opens a vast field of ecological and taxonomic research. Photographs show an unexpectedly wide range of wood anatomical structures by showing hardly lignified annual rings in high alpine herbs as well as fully woody tissues in lowland mediterranean trees. New is the presentation and synthesis of anatomical features in numerous species of the northern hemisphere. All features have a code which makes the classification compatible with other electronic datasets. Dendrochronologists, plant anatomists and especially ecologists will recognize that stems of all growth forms contain a wealth of relevant features.