Abstract: We present a lobe-based tree representation for modeling trees. The new representation is based on the observation that the tree's foliage details can be abstracted into canonical geometry structures, termed lobe-textures. We introduce techniques to (i) approximate the geometry of given tree data and encode it into a lobe-based representation, (ii) decode the representation and synthesize a fully detailed tree model that visually resembles the input. The encoded tree serves as a light intermediate representation, which facilitates efficient storage and transmission of massive amounts of trees, e.g., from a server to clients for interactive applications in urban environments. The method is evaluated by both reconstructing laser scanned trees (given as point sets) as well as re-representing existing tree models (given as polygons).