Using bind.tip (or bind.tree) on a tree with node labels

Just a quick point of (searchable) clarification for both phytools bind.tip and the ape function bind.tree (bind.tip, after all, uses bind.tree interally; 1, 2). Regardless of whether or not your tree contains node labels (or tip labels, for that matter), the argument where should give the node number (from the matrix tree$edge), at or below which the tip or subtree should be bound.

Node numbers can be seen using:

plotTree(tree,node.numbers=T)
## OR
plot(tree)
nodelabels() # i.e., no arguments

If you want to bind a new tip or subtree to a terminal edge (i.e., an edge ending with a tip), then the 'node number' is just the index of the species in tree$tip.label. We can get this by (for tip name tip) setting where=which(tree$tip.label==tip). Alternatively, if we want to see the node & tip numbers plotted on the tree we could do:

> tree<-pbtree(n=20)
> plot(tree,no.margin=T,label.offset=0.1) # offset may vary
> nodelabels()
> tiplabels()

If adding multiple tips to the tree, remember to keep in mind that each time a new tip is added, the set of node numbers will change. For example:

> tree2<-bind.tip(tree,"t21",where=23,position= 0.5*tree$edge.length[which(tree$edge[,2]==23)])
> ## this just added a new tip halfway along the edge
> ## ending at node 23
> plot(tree2,no.margin=T,label.offset=0.1)
> nodelabels()
> tiplabels()

That's all for now!