Dendrology

This article refers to the scientific study of tree plants. For the mathematical study of graphs called trees, see Graph Theory

The dendrology (ancient Greek: δένδρον, dendron, «tree» and ancient Greek: -λογία, -logia, science or study de) or xylology (ancient Greek: ξύλον, ksulon, «wood») is the science and study of wooded plants (trees, shrubs and lianas), specifically their taxonomic classifications.

Dendrology is the subcategory of botany that specializes in the characterization and identification of woody plants. There is no clear taxonomic boundary between biology and dendrology because woody plants can belong to families of non-woody plants, that is, these families can be composed of woody and non-woody members. Some families include only a few woody species.

Dendrology, as a discipline of industrial forestry, tends to focus on the identification of economically useful woody plants and their taxonomic interrelationships. As an academic course of study, dendrology will include all woody plants, native and non-native, that occur in a region.

Dendrochronology is the investigation of the history of the tree by examining its growth rings, it is a specific aspect that also yields fruits for the knowledge of recent climate variation, applied to current specimens, and past, when examining fossil trunks.