Taxon Sampling

tree with several of its branches cut short

TAXON SAMPLING. Eucalyptus globulus, Tasmanian blue gum.
West side of Palm Drive north of Arboretum.

Taxon sampling refers to the sampling of random leaves of a tree from among all possible leaves. In mathematical models of evolutionary trees, or in data analysis, a random subset of taxa is often drawn from a larger set of taxa. The tree constructed by connecting only that subset of taxa is then analyzed.

Photo: Noah Rosenberg, October 24, 2019