The Voynich Ninja

In a number of VM plants there are "stubs" from where it seems that a branch or twig has been removed. This motif is apparently fairly common in other manuscripts. My guess is that since forests and trees in general used to be managed very intensively, people were used to seeing trees with cut branches. Might this mean that the motif might be a "tree marker" or "woody marker" in the VM?

Here's just two examples, from the Liber Floridus and MS Palatino 586, but it is certainly not limited to these:

[attachment=1874]

Yes, it might be.

There are also plants that drop the lower leaves and build new ones toward the top. And also plants where the edible portion is harvested from the bottom up as new parts are formed (Brussels sprouts would be one example).

It looks like various things are going on in the VM. There's some clear examples of "bottom leaf dropping" like You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f15r. These appear different than the "cut branch" motif. Banana for comparison, it was just the first plant I could think of that does this.

[attachment=1876]

Looks more like a fan palm tree to me

This is why I take the VMS plant drawings seriously.