The family tree symbol holds across plant and noble substance flow

Evidence

For the relation of the family—and furthermore, of the noble group generally—to the individual, the significance of the “family tree” is profoundly symbolic: the substance that makes up the individual must have passed through the trunk of the whole, just as the substance of fruit and branch in a tree is the same as that composing the trunk. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 515

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Simmel’s family-tree-as-organism image dovetails with the grafting/trees-as-infrastructure essay — inherited substance flowing through the trunk parallels grafted growth.