{ "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-10T19:54:08Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude", "enrichment": { "pass": 3, "engine": "claude", "producedAt": "2026-10-05T15:00:00Z", "ingestedAt": "2026-10-05T13:11:18+00:00", "fields": [ "agent_conduct", "ethics", "owners" ] }, "revisions": [ { "at": "2026-10-06T22:29:08+00:00", "engine": "codex", "fields": [ "definition", "distinguishing_features" ], "answering_review": "a7125742e70dde1777e4be19b4f764d599161e5a03e2ab93e7e28365a97bc3dc" } ], "gate": { "passed": true, "version": "1.0", "at": "2026-10-07T10:10:25+00:00", "evidence": [ "completeness 1.00", "sense: Wikidata description", "2 live sources", "review by codex: pass" ] } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q10884", "registryId": "vr.tr.tree", "name": "tree", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "PHY.LIV" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q10884/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.tree", "name": "tree", "purpose": "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.", "definition": "A perennial woody plant with one or more self-supporting stems supporting an elevated crown of branches or leaves, without requiring a single trunk or conventional secondary thickening throughout its life.", "what_it_is_for": "Nothing, in itself. To people it provides shade, timber, fruit, shelter, drainage, carbon storage and the character of a place.", "affordances": [ "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 tree typically has one main self-supporting stem but may have several, and its distinction from a shrub is a convention rather than a strict botanical boundary.", "Trees are perennial woody plants, although some lack conventional secondary thickening, which is therefore not a universal identifying feature.", "The individual matters, not just the species: this tree has an owner, an age and a condition.", "A tree is fixed in place, so it belongs to a plot and to whoever owns that plot." ], "appearance": "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.", "visual_identification": [ "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" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "height", "typical_range": "3-100", "unit": "m", "note": "the lower bound is a convention separating trees from shrubs" }, { "quantity": "trunk diameter at breast height", "typical_range": "0.1-3", "unit": "m", "note": "measured at 1.3 m by convention, and this is the field measurement everything else is derived from" }, { "quantity": "age", "typical_range": "10-1000", "unit": "years", "note": "some species far exceed this" }, { "quantity": "crown spread", "typical_range": "2-30", "unit": "m", "note": "decides the area affected by roots and by fall" } ], "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" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "plant", "why": "inherits taxonomy, life stages and habitat questions" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "shrub", "why": "the boundary is conventional and different registers draw it differently" }, { "relation": "stands on", "target": "land parcel", "why": "ownership and duty of care follow the land, not the tree" }, { "relation": "regulated by", "target": "tree protection regime", "why": "felling and pruning often need consent" }, { "relation": "produces", "target": "timber", "why": "the material is a separate thing with its own grading and trade" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "accepted binomial", "value_or_pattern": "genus species author, year", "note": "identifies the species, not this tree" }, { "scheme": "tree tag or asset number", "value_or_pattern": "manager-specific", "note": "identifies the individual in a managed population" }, { "scheme": "position", "value_or_pattern": "coordinates", "note": "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" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [], "agent_conduct": { "may": [ "Identify, measure and monitor trees and report their health and risk.", "Record trees in an inventory for their owner or a public authority." ], "must_not": [ "Fell, prune or damage a tree without the owner's consent and any required permit.", "Dig within a tree's root protection zone without authorization.", "Move plants or wood that may carry notifiable pests or diseases.", "Ignore signs of failure in a tree that stands over people, roads or buildings." ], "requires_human": [ "Felling or heavy pruning of a tree, especially a protected one.", "Declaring a tree safe or dangerous where people are exposed." ] }, "ethics": { "considerations": [ "Trees live for centuries; a felling decision cannot be undone in a human lifetime.", "Trees give shade, habitat and cultural meaning to a place and its people." ], "affected_parties": [ "Neighbours and passers-by", "Wildlife that lives in it", "Future residents of the place" ] }, "owners": { "steward": "The owner of the land it grows on; public authorities for protected trees.", "master_systems": [ "Tree protection orders and local tree registers", "Forest inventories" ] } }, "sources": [ { "id": "wikidata", "title": "Wikidata item Q10884: tree", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10884", "url_status": "live", "what_it_supports": "identity and sense of the item", "checked_by": "wikidata-api" }, { "id": "wikipedia-en", "title": "Wikipedia: Tree", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree", "url_status": "live", "what_it_supports": "general description of the item", "checked_by": "wikidata-api sitelink" } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identification-and-taxon", "name": "Identification and taxon", "description": "What kind of tree this is and how that was settled.", "rationale": "Everything a manager does with a tree depends on the species, and identification is seasonal and easy to get wrong.", "layers": [ { "id": "species", "name": "Species and authority", "description": "The accepted name and who accepts it.", "findings": [ { "id": "species-finding", "name": "Accepted name and synonyms", "description": "The binomial, its authority, and the names it replaces.", "questions": [ { "text": "What species is this tree, under which accepted name and authority?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What evidence settled the identification, and in which season was it made?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "field-characters", "name": "Field characters", "description": "What can be seen, and when.", "findings": [ { "id": "field-characters-finding", "name": "Diagnostic characters by season", "description": "Which characters are available at which time of year.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which characters distinguish this species from its look-alikes, and when are they visible?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "What should an agent do when identification is attempted outside that season?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "individual-and-place", "name": "The individual and its place", "description": "This tree, where it stands, and whose it is.", "rationale": "A tree is fixed, so its identity is bound up with a location and an owner in a way a species model cannot express.", "layers": [ { "id": "position-and-ownership", "name": "Position and ownership", "description": "Where it stands and who is responsible.", "findings": [ { "id": "position-and-ownership-finding", "name": "Location and duty holder", "description": "The plot, the owner and who owes the duty of care.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where exactly does this tree stand, and on whose land?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Who owes the duty of care for it, and to whom?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "protection", "name": "Protection and constraint", "description": "Orders, designations and what they forbid.", "findings": [ { "id": "protection-finding", "name": "Protection status", "description": "What consent is needed before anything is done.", "questions": [ { "text": "What protection applies to this tree, under which instrument?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which works require consent, and what is the penalty for proceeding without it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "growth-and-condition", "name": "Growth, age and condition", "description": "How big, how old, how healthy.", "rationale": "Condition is what decides intervention, and it is assessed by measurement and inspection rather than by looking.", "layers": [ { "id": "dimensions", "name": "Dimensions and age", "description": "Height, diameter, crown and the age they imply.", "findings": [ { "id": "dimensions-finding", "name": "Measured dimensions", "description": "The field measurements and what is derived from them.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the height, diameter at breast height and crown spread of this tree?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "How was age estimated, and what is the uncertainty in that estimate?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "health", "name": "Health and defects", "description": "Disease, decay, damage and vigour.", "findings": [ { "id": "health-finding", "name": "Condition assessment", "description": "What was found, by whom, and against what method.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the condition of this tree, assessed by whom and under what method?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Which finding obliges action rather than re-inspection?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "risk-and-management", "name": "Risk and management", "description": "What it might do and what is done about it.", "rationale": "A tree near people or property is a managed risk, and the record of that management is what defends a decision afterwards.", "layers": [ { "id": "hazard", "name": "Hazard and target", "description": "What could fail and what it would hit.", "findings": [ { "id": "hazard-finding", "name": "Hazard and exposure", "description": "The failure mode and what is beneath it.", "questions": [ { "text": "What failure is plausible for this tree, and what would it affect?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How often should it be re-inspected given that exposure?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "works", "name": "Works and their record", "description": "Pruning, felling, planting and what was recorded.", "findings": [ { "id": "works-finding", "name": "Work history", "description": "What was done, when, by whom, under what consent.", "questions": [ { "text": "What work has been carried out on this tree, and under whose consent?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What must be recorded about work so a later dispute can be answered?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "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?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }