tree
Let an agent treat a tree as an individual living thing that is also a fixed feature of a place, with an owner, a legal status and a duty of care attached to it.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify
Researched by: Claude
Purpose and description
Let an agent treat a tree as an individual living thing that is also a fixed feature of a place, with an owner, a legal status and a duty of care attached to it.
A perennial plant with a single self-supporting woody stem that keeps growing in girth for as long as it lives, holding a crown of branches above the ground.
What it is for: Nothing, in itself. To people it provides shade, timber, fruit, shelter, drainage, carbon storage and the character of a place.
It can be observe and identify it, which is season-dependent; measure it, which is how age, health and risk are judged; prune, fell or plant it, mostly with permission; harvest from it - fruit, nuts, sap, timber; be harmed by it, when a limb or the whole tree fails.
Distinguishing features
A single self-supporting woody stem, which separates a tree from a shrub with several - a convention, not a botanical boundary
Perennial and secondarily thickening, which separates it from tall herbaceous plants such as banana
The individual matters, not just the species: this tree has an owner, an age and a condition
Fixed in place, so it belongs to a plot and to whoever owns that plot
What it looks like
A woody stem from a few metres to over a hundred, carrying a crown whose shape is the most recognisable feature at distance; bark, leaf, flower and fruit are what identify it up close.
Physical character
height: 3-100 m - the lower bound is a convention separating trees from shrubs
trunk diameter at breast height: 0.1-3 m - measured at 1.3 m by convention, and this is the field measurement everything else is derived from
age: 10-1000 years - some species far exceed this
crown spread: 2-30 m - decides the area affected by roots and by fall
How it is recognised
Leaf shape and arrangement, which is the primary key in summer and useless for half the year in deciduous species
Bark and branching habit, which work all year and are what winter identification relies on
Fruit, cone or seed, which is decisive when present and absent most of the time
Overall crown form at distance, which suggests a family and rarely settles a species
Related models
is a kind of - inherits taxonomy, life stages and habitat questions
is confused with - the boundary is conventional and different registers draw it differently
stands on - ownership and duty of care follow the land, not the tree
regulated by - felling and pruning often need consent
produces - the material is a separate thing with its own grading and trade
In practice
Families and kinds
by leaf habit: deciduous, evergreen
by wood: broadleaf, conifer
by setting: forest, plantation, orchard, street, garden, veteran
by status: protected, ancient, hazardous, planted, self-seeded
Identifiers
accepted binomial genus species author, year identifies the species, not this tree
tree tag or asset number manager-specific identifies the individual in a managed population
position coordinates for a fixed organism this is a stable part of its identity
Standards and regulation
Tree preservation orders and equivalent regimes, which forbid work without consent
Arboricultural inspection standards, which define how condition and risk are assessed
Timber legality regulations, which govern trade in felled wood
Protected species law, which can protect what lives in the tree rather than the tree
Failure modes and hazards
Limb or whole-tree failure, which is the hazard that drives inspection regimes
Root damage from excavation, which kills slowly and is usually noticed years later
Disease and pests, some of which are notifiable and change what may be moved
Subsidence and drain damage caused by roots, which is a legal dispute more often than an engineering one
Also called
+206
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Also registered as vr.tr.tree
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions.
Identification and taxon What kind of tree this is and how that was settled.
Everything a manager does with a tree depends on the species, and identification is seasonal and easy to get wrong.
Species and authority
The accepted name and who accepts it.
Accepted name and synonyms
The binomial, its authority, and the names it replaces.
- What species is this tree, under which accepted name and authority? definition
- What evidence settled the identification, and in which season was it made? provenance
Field characters
What can be seen, and when.
Diagnostic characters by season
Which characters are available at which time of year.
- Which characters distinguish this species from its look-alikes, and when are they visible? boundary
- What should an agent do when identification is attempted outside that season? action
The individual and its place This tree, where it stands, and whose it is.
A tree is fixed, so its identity is bound up with a location and an owner in a way a species model cannot express.
Position and ownership
Where it stands and who is responsible.
Location and duty holder
The plot, the owner and who owes the duty of care.
- Where exactly does this tree stand, and on whose land? definition
- Who owes the duty of care for it, and to whom? action
Protection and constraint
Orders, designations and what they forbid.
Protection status
What consent is needed before anything is done.
- What protection applies to this tree, under which instrument? provenance
- Which works require consent, and what is the penalty for proceeding without it? action
Growth, age and condition How big, how old, how healthy.
Condition is what decides intervention, and it is assessed by measurement and inspection rather than by looking.
Dimensions and age
Height, diameter, crown and the age they imply.
Measured dimensions
The field measurements and what is derived from them.
- What are the height, diameter at breast height and crown spread of this tree? measurement
- How was age estimated, and what is the uncertainty in that estimate? provenance
Health and defects
Disease, decay, damage and vigour.
Condition assessment
What was found, by whom, and against what method.
- What is the condition of this tree, assessed by whom and under what method? measurement
- Which finding obliges action rather than re-inspection? action
Risk and management What it might do and what is done about it.
A tree near people or property is a managed risk, and the record of that management is what defends a decision afterwards.
Hazard and target
What could fail and what it would hit.
Hazard and exposure
The failure mode and what is beneath it.
- What failure is plausible for this tree, and what would it affect? boundary
- How often should it be re-inspected given that exposure? action
Works and their record
Pruning, felling, planting and what was recorded.
Work history
What was done, when, by whom, under what consent.
- What work has been carried out on this tree, and under whose consent? provenance
- What must be recorded about work so a later dispute can be answered? action
What the second pass must settle
- Should the individual tree and the species be separate models, given that duty of care attaches to the individual and identification to the species?
- How should a veteran or ancient tree be represented when its value is its age rather than its condition?
- What minimum evidence should support a hazard assessment before an agent may recommend felling?