Could be coworkers, friends, neighbors, the guy who delivers your pizza, anybody that knows you. Mostly thought of as family, offspring, ancestors from past generations.
Even the serial killer had a network of branches, before hacking them all off.
A term used to describe the condition of one's eyes after they've smoked cannabis. Due to the sudden formation of blood vessels on the sclera, the rapid outburst of capillaries then begin to look like "branches". In extreme cases, such as when one has a subconjunctival hemorrhage, the branches then start to look like either bushes, or extremely thick vines, in which case the term would be changed to "vines".