The Amazing Bud

Part 1 of our series on understanding tree growth

Buds of three trees: bigleaf magnolia, sweetgum, American beech

A tree bud is a complicated organ that contains everything needed to produce the stem of a tree, including leaves, flowers, and buds. In between these organs are the cells of the future shoot. What happens inside a bud is a complex, elegant series of events. Let’s go through those events. For now, we will focus on temperate trees.