Tree taper

rdf:langString Tree taper

rdf:langString Tree taper is the degree to which a tree's stem or bole decreases in diameter as a function of height above ground. Within Forestry and for the purposes of timber production, trees with a high degree of taper are said to have poor form, while those with low taper have good form. The opposite is the case for open-grown amenity trees. The form of a tree is sometimes quantified by the Girard form class, which is the ratio, expressed as a percentage, of the butt-log to diameter at breast height. Taper is often represented by mathematical functions fitted to empirical data, called . One such function, attributed to Ormerod, is where: = stem diameter at height h, = tree diameter at breast height, = tree total height, height of interest (h ≤ H), and = breast height. Once developed, taper equations can be used to predict the diameter at a given height, or the height for a given diameter.