If you look at an evolutionary diagram, you can see where Homo sapiens branched off from other primates. You can see where apples branched off from the rest of the rose family. But you won’t see where trees branched off from other plants. That’s because they never did.
Trees are not a species, or even a family or an order. So do trees even exist, scientifically?
Tom Kimmerer, a consulting forest scientist based in Kentucky, said yes — just not in the way you might think.
“Many years ago I asked my daughter Larkin, ‘What’s a tree?'” Kimmerer told Live Science. “And she could recognize them without fail. If a kid could recognize it, then a tree is some real entity we can recognize, even if the definition is difficult.”
“Writer Fuel” is a series of cool real-world stories that might inspire your little writer heart. Check out our Writer Fuel page on the LimFic blog for more inspiration.
