Dendrology

Dendrology is the study of woody plants; typically trees. Dendrology is a science that studies, identifies, and even names plants that have woody structural systems. Trees are an important part of our everyday life. We use them for thousands of things, ranging from wood for houses and furniture to rayon for clothing and imitation vanilla to flavor food. Wherever we look we see trees in many different shapes and sizes. Each kind of tree can be recognized, just like we recognize people, by its individual physical characteristics. These characteristics are habitat, form, bark, branches and twigs, leaves, fruits and flowers. Dendrology is often confused with botany. However, botany is the study of all types of general plants, while dendrology studies only woody plants. Dendrology may be considered a subcategory of botany that specializes in the characterization and identification of woody plants.

The study of these woody systems hold a lot of information about the tree, about the evolution of the tree, and how we can best care for and protect each species of tree. Dendrology deserves to have a lot of interest because trees are so vital to our existence. With over 100,000 different species of trees, dendrology is a huge area of study and it’s a massive undertaking to try to learn more about each species than what meets the eye, and also attempt to find and identify new species of trees all the time. Dendrology is a science that studies every part of every single tree. This information allows scientists to understand the root structure, why the leaves are the shape that they are, why the tree may bloom when it does, and even where the tree originated from and what other species it may be linked to.

Source

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/main.htm