Does anyone know of a term used in botany to define the "trunkness" of
a plant? By trunkness I mean the tendency of a tree's (or other
plant's) branches to consist of one main branch which shoots off many
smaller branches (e.g. like a tree trunk). Low "trunkness" would be
defined as a a tree's tendency for all of it's branching points to
lead to similar sized daughter branches, where size is determined by
either length or number of subsequent branches each daughter branch
leads to. Therefore, most trees would tend to have high "trunkness",
and most shrubs would have relatively lower "trunkness". There has to
be a better term than "trunkness", though.

Thanks,
Hos