A Tree/Shrub For All Purposes

A tree/shrub for all purposes (could as well be “a plant for all purposes,” but the following variables would be a bit different)

Physical/morphological variables:

• Height
• Canopy spread
• Shape (conical [drawings], rounded, to umbrella shaped)
• Root system (deep/taprooted, shallow/invasive, rhizomatous/suckering, renewing and fibrous as in palms, etc.)
• Trunk/stems (single to several-stemmed to densely suckering)
• Bark (of old and young branches and twigs, which usually differ greatly) (fibrous/stringy, platelike, checked, fissured, exfoliating or not, light or dark or variously colored, etc.)
• Wood (brittle like persimmon to flexible like willow, dense and heavy to light, coarse or fine-grained, variously colored and scented
• Branches (many and twiggy, or few and stout, thorny or not and straight and regular or crooked, unpredictable, tangled)
• Leaves (small to large, simple to very compound, glabrous to hairy, entire to dentate to lobed, glossy to dull, blackish green to grayish to yellow-green, abaxial and adaxial sides alike or contrasting, evergreen or deciduous (if evergreen, how many years persisting; if deciduous, what color(s) in fall), fragrant when crushed?
• Flowers (showy or not, short or long season)
• Fruits
• Rate of growth (slow being less than 1 ft./year, medium ca. 1-3 ft., fast more than 3 ft. yr.?)
• Longevity (short-lived being less than 100 years, medium 200-400, long more than 500, and some very long more than or equal to 1,000 years)
• Requirements (what climate, what soil, how much water and when, any need for shaping, pruning etc.?
• Values (aesthetic, wildlife, human food, multiple uses/attractions . . .