Sample clustering dendrogram (no cut)
A bare hierarchical-clustering dendrogram with internal nodes placed at their merge height and a cluster-distance axis — the plain similarity tree before any flat-cluster threshold is applied.
For the data analyst
What this shows
The plainest reading of a hierarchical-clustering dendrogram: five samples joined bottom-up, with each internal node placed at its merge height — the cophenetic distance at which its two child clusters fuse. Leaves align on a shared baseline and a cluster-distance axis runs down the side, so the vertical position of every join tells you how similar the samples beneath it are.
Unlike a cladogram (topology only) or a phylogram (branch length = evolutionary distance), here the height of the merge is the message: samples that fuse low are alike, samples that only fuse near the top are distant. This example omits the cut directive on purpose — it is the raw similarity tree, before you commit to a threshold that would carve it into flat clusters.