Seems like you are suffering from "Seanitis", Iris. You need to stop playing
with your 'puter once in a while and get out into the real world and look at
the actual plants first hand.

All trees are plants.

Carica papaya does have a woody trunk and is a tree. Maybe not as woody as
some other arborescent plants but that is just a matter of degree.

A woody trunk makes arborescent palms trees. The presence or absences of
branches doesn't matter.

Who said bonasi weren't trees? It wasn't me.


"Iris Cohen" wrote in message
...
Actually Carica papaya is a tree by any definition you care to select,
which
cannot be said for banana 'trees',

Why? As far as I could tell from the pictures, they are both herbaceous.
The
references on the Internet call them plants, not trees.

palms and bonsai.

What is the trunk of a palm made of? If it is lignified in some way, then
I
would call it a tree. Does the absence of branches make it not a tree?

Why is a bonsai not a tree? It may be only a few inches or a couple of
feet
tall, but
1. In most cases, if it were put in the ground and allowed to grow freely,
it
would become a normal size tree.
2. Its purpose is to represent a full size tree. So why isn't a bonsai a
tree?

Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)