Glossary term
What is Excurrent form?
Short answer
Excurrent form is a tree shape with one strong central trunk and side branches, like a pine or spruce.
Excurrent form, explained for tree service owners
Excurrent form describes trees with a single straight trunk that goes to the top, with branches spreading out from it in a cone or pyramid shape. Many conifers grow this way, and so do some hardwoods when young, such as sweetgum. It is the opposite of a decurrent form, where the trunk splits into many main branches and makes a round or vase shape, like an elm or oak. For a tree service owner, shape guides pruning. An excurrent tree does best with its leader left alone, and removing the top can ruin its form. Knowing the natural form helps you explain to a customer why a tree should or should not be shaped a certain way.
Related terms
- Buttress roots
Buttress roots are wide, thick roots at the base of a trunk that help hold a tree upright.
- Cambium
Cambium is the thin layer of living cells just under the bark that makes new wood inward and new bark outward each year.
- Canopy
Canopy is the layer of branches and leaves formed by the crowns of a tree or of many trees together.
- Conifer
A conifer is a tree that makes seeds in cones and usually has needles or scale-like leaves.
- Crown
Crown is the upper part of a tree made of branches, twigs and leaves, growing from the trunk.
- Evergreen tree
An evergreen tree is a tree that keeps green leaves or needles all year and replaces them gradually.
- Girdling root
A girdling root is a root that circles the trunk or another root and slowly squeezes it.
- Root flare
Root flare is the widened base of a trunk where it meets the roots at the soil line.
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