2025-03-20

This is Simon's COMMONS Lab daily Open Notebook.

Today is 2025.03.20

Todo today

Have a look at the COMMONS research discussion forum

- https://github.com/orgs/commons-research/discussions

Doing

• Researching what is a tree: Wikipedia says that there are no precise definition, botanically or in common language, of what a tree is. It is a plant with a trunk and a certain height (if its too small, it is refered as a shrub or "arbuste"). The trunk can be lignified, but is not always the case (banana, papaya). It doesn't refer to a monophyletic group as angiosperms, gymnosperms, and even some ferns do grow a trunk. Perennial

  https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2018/what-makes-tree-tree: This news article claims it is the absence of programmed senescence that makes a tree, even more than its woodiness

  https://web.archive.org/web/20140420004648/http://www.as.miami.edu/qr/arboretum/what_is_a_tree.html: No unversally agreed botanical definition Multiple trunks equaly developed Trunk not necessarly made of wood

  Wilson, Philip. (2014). The meaning of 'tree'. The Arb Magazine: Newsletter of the Arboricultural Association. 166. 32-33. : A tree is: ‘A perennial woody plant growing to a considerable height and size, with a self-supporting main stem and usually developing branches at some distance from the ground’ Idea of size, species (woody perennial), and form (main stem + usually branches at some distance of the ground), a "ideal tree" would tick all thoses boxes, but some individuals only tick two (bonsai, palms, ...)

  https://wikibotanica.net/glossary: (a woody plant at least 5 metres high, with a main axis the lower part of which is usually unbranched)

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_botanical_terms: A woody plant, usually with a single distinct trunk and generally more than 2–3 metres (6.6–9.8 ft) tall.

Paused

Done

Learned more details about the DBGI project

Notes

My bachelor work will be about trees. Approximately 140 trees and their different organs (leaves, bark, seeds, flowers, fruits, twigs, and buds) will have to be sampled. This will multiply the number of total samples by a factor of 3-4 depending on how I feel it, and the availability of the organ.

Todo tomorrow, one day ... or never

[x]Ask the seretaries for an access key to the building and the garden [x] Take a stroll in the garden to see where a QR code could be attached to a specimen (use big plastified sheets, a string, roll that string around the nails in the trees) [x] => Ask Alain if it is okay. He will call me back on monday [] Start the collect of differents tree organs (bark if possible, leaves, seeds, flowers/reproductive organs, buds, twigs/small branches) []Continue with sample preparation [] Download Zotero ? [] Check what BotaLista and BotaVista is [] Check the list of plants, and trees of the garden

Today I learned that

It is not trivial to describe what a tree is