Tree

====Tree shaping====
{{main|Tree shaping}}
[[File:Person-tree.jpg|thumb|left|''People trees'', by Pooktre]]

Tree shaping is the practice of changing living trees and other woody plants into man made shapes for art and useful structures. There are a few different methods<ref name="CottageGarden">{{Cite journal |first=Mörður |last=Gunnarsson |title=Living Furniture |journal=Cottage and Garden |pages=28–29 |year=2012 }}</ref> of shaping a tree. There is a gradual method and there is an instant method. The gradual method slowly guides the growing tip along predetermined pathways over time whereas the instant method bends and weaves saplings {{convert|2|to|3|m|ft|abbr=on}} long into a shape that becomes more rigid as they thicken up.<ref name="LLC2007">{{cite book |author=Dwell, LLC |title=Dwell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f8YDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA96 |date=February 2007 |publisher=Dwell, LLC |page=96 |issn=1530-5309 |access-date=28 February 2016 |archive-date=4 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170304135950/https://books.google.com/books?id=f8YDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA96 |url-status=live }}</ref> Most artists use grafting of living trunks, branches, and roots, for art or functional structures and there are plans to grow "living houses" with the branches of trees knitting together to give a solid, weatherproof exterior combined with an interior application of straw and clay to provide a [[stucco]]-like inner surface.<ref name="LLC2007"/>

Tree shaping has been practised for at least several hundred years, the oldest known examples being the [[living root bridges]] built and maintained by the [[Khasi people|Khasi]] people of [[Meghalaya]], India using the roots of the [[Ficus elastica|rubber tree]] (''Ficus elastica'').<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.picturesw.com/2012/08/the-natural-root-bridges-of-cherrapunji.html |title=The natural root bridges of Cherrapunji, India |date=7 August 2012 |publisher=Pictures World |access-date=17 September 2014 |archive-date=24 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924180958/http://www.picturesw.com/2012/08/the-natural-root-bridges-of-cherrapunji.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/living-bridges-in-india-have-grown-for-500-years-pics.html |title=Living Bridges in India Have Grown for 500 Years |last=Merchant |first=Brian |date=28 September 2010 |work=Treehugger |access-date=17 September 2014 |archive-date=23 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023050359/http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/living-bridges-in-india-have-grown-for-500-years-pics.html |url-status=live }}</ref>