We don't know what a tree is (and this video won't tell you)

MinuteEarth

Offset your carbon footprint with Wren! They'll protect 5 extra acres of rainforest for each of the first 100 people who sign up at https://www.wren.co/join/minuteearth. It turns out that defining what is and isn't a “tree” is way harder than it seems. LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: Wood: A bunch of cellulose fibers intertwined with lignin usually found in the trunk of a tree. Trunk: A wooden stem that thickens over time. Bonsai: An ornamental tree or shrub that is artificially prevented from reaching its normal size. Shrub: A woody plant that is smaller than a tree. Gymnosperm: A group of plants, including conifers, that have naked seeds. Angiosperm: A group of plants, including lots of other “trees” that have enclosed seeds. Monocots: A group of flowering plants - mostly angiosperms - with a single embryonic leaf that includes palm trees. Dicots: A group of flowering plants - mostly angiosperms - with two embryonic leaves that includes oak trees. SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* David Goldenberg | Script Writer, Narrator, and Director Adam Thompson | Illustration, Video Editing, and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info OUR STAFF ************ Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia i Rius David Goldenberg • Julián Gustavo Gómez Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ Youtube | https://youtube.com/MinuteEarth TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth Website | https://minuteearth.com Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176 REFERENCES ************** Georg Miehe, Sabine Miehe, Jonas Vogel, Sonam Co, Duo La. (2007) "Highest Treeline in the Northern Hemisphere Found in Southern Tibet," Mountain Research and Development, 27(2), 169-173. Retrieved from: https://bioone.org/journals/mountain-research-and-development/volume-27/issue-2/mrd.0792/Highest-Treeline-in-the-Northern-Hemisphere-Found-in-Southern-Tibet/10.1659/mrd.0792.full#i0276-4741-27-2-169-b33 Ellenberg, H., Mueller-Dombois, D. (1965). A key to Raunkiaer plant life forms with revised subdivisions. Retrieved from: https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=bgi-002%3A1965%3A37%3A%3A130 Alcott, D. (2019). Are palm trees really trees? That’s Life Science. Retrieved from: http://thatslifesci.com/2019-11-25-Are-palm-trees-really-trees-dalcott/ David B. Neale, Pedro J. Martínez-García, Amanda R. De La Torre, Sara Montanari, Xiao-Xin Wei. (2017). “Novel Insights into Tree Biology and Genome Evolution as Revealed Through Genomics.” Annual Review of Plant Biology 68:1, 457-483. Retrieved from: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-arplant-042916-041049?journalCode=arplant Ehrenberg, Rachel. (2018). “What Makes A Tree A Tree?” Knowable Magazine. Retrieved from: https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2018/what-makes-tree-tree#:~:text=A%20banana%20tree%27s%20trunk%20doesn,cells%20typical%20of%20most%20trees Christophe Plomion, Grégoire Leprovost, Alexia Stokes. (2001). “Wood Formation in Trees”. Plant Physiology, Volume 127, 4: 1513–1523. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.010816 Ray, Georgia (2021). "There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically)". Eukaryote Writes Blog. Retrieved from: https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2021/05/02/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-tree/