Shrubs, Trees & Plants
There isn't a firm taxonomic definition of a "shrub." This can be confusing for the amateur botanist or ecologist, who finds both outsized herbs and stunted trees muddling the categorization. Fortunately, defining a plant as a tree, a shrub or an herb rarely is an essential part of identification. Does this Spark an idea?
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Trees
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Trees often have a single, relatively thick trunk and an identifiable canopy. Trees tend to be classified based on their size, which can be enormous. C. Frank Brockman in "Trees of North America" (1979) suggests the characteristics of a height at maturity of at least 15 feet; a single, woody, relatively thick stem (the trunk); and an obvious canopy.
Shrubs
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Shrubs may be multi-stemmed woody plants or simply stunted trees. Shrubs can be nebulously defined as "smaller than trees," and often -- as in hazelnuts or hawthorns -- have multiple woody stems, giving them a bunched, thicket-like appearance. Plenty of trees, however, grow in shrub-like stature, from bottomland willows and alders to conifers up at mountain timberlines.
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Other Plants
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Herbaceous flowering plants like mullein may grow quite tall. Herbs tend to be distinct from trees and shrubs by their lack of woody stems. Nonetheless, many herbaceous flowering plants can grow to shrub-size. For example, common mullein, in invasive exotic in North America, may sport a stalk well more than 6 feet high.
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