The scene shifts to South America, where a French botanist, de Jussieu, spent years devoted to the arduous quest for and study of the fever bark tree, only to lose his data, specimens, and health.

The "yellow" in these names comes from the tree's inner bark, which is yellowish in color. Black oak generally grows to about 80 feet tall, but like the willow oak, some can grow to be 100 feet tall.

When the tree reaches 110 to 120 years old (a mere teenager for a Ponderosa pine), it begins to shed its black bark and reveal an inner bark of yellow. That's why locals call them "Yellowbellies." ...

Discover which tree bark characteristics are worth a second look. In addition to leaves and flowers, you can look at a tree's bark to identify it. Skip to content ...

Twig characteristics. The twigs on a tree are last year's growth. It is woody, but not yet covered in bark. Oftentimes, twigs have a distinguishing color or arrangement of buds.

Frequently when our mysterious tree is encountered in a forest, you'll see on the bark a series of holes, pecked or drilled by a sapsucker, probably the "Yellow-bellied" variety, Sphyrapicus varius.

Deep in the Andean rainforest, the bark from an endangered tree once cured malaria and powered the British Empire. Now, its derivatives are at the centre of a worldwide debate.