cactus as a tree?

Eric Nielsen ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM
Sat Mar 10 08:55:47 UTC 2012


There is the woody vs. herbaceous distinction.

http://plant-bio.wikispaces.com/Woody+stems+vs.+Herbaceous+stems

Bamboo would be woody--and the mulberry bush, too. As are trees.

Eric

On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 3:00 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

>
> As it turns out, Wikipedia =
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tree_genera) classifies saguaro as =
> a tree.
>
> According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree), the =
> scientific difference between a tree and a non-tree plant is that a tree =
> has wood. And I think that kind of makes sense in English, too. We =
> imagine plants as having more delicate stems while trees have trunks =
> with bark.
>
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list