diff --git a/commonspace/object/tree/objecttree/descriptionparser.go b/commonspace/object/tree/objecttree/descriptionparser.go
index a3e79a04..0edc35f9 100644
--- a/commonspace/object/tree/objecttree/descriptionparser.go
+++ b/commonspace/object/tree/objecttree/descriptionparser.go
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 package objecttree
 
 type DescriptionParser interface {
-	ParseChange(*Change) ([]string, error)
+	ParseChange(ch *Change, isRoot bool) ([]string, error)
 }
 
 var NoOpDescriptionParser = noopDescriptionParser{}
 
 type noopDescriptionParser struct{}
 
-func (n noopDescriptionParser) ParseChange(change *Change) ([]string, error) {
+func (n noopDescriptionParser) ParseChange(ch *Change, isRoot bool) ([]string, error) {
 	return []string{"DOC"}, nil
 }
diff --git a/commonspace/object/tree/objecttree/treegraph_nix.go b/commonspace/object/tree/objecttree/treegraph_nix.go
index 355ca96d..d8e104cf 100644
--- a/commonspace/object/tree/objecttree/treegraph_nix.go
+++ b/commonspace/object/tree/objecttree/treegraph_nix.go
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ func (t *Tree) Graph(parser DescriptionParser) (data string, err error) {
 		if ord == "" {
 			ord = "miss"
 		}
-		chSymbs, err := parser.ParseChange(c)
+		chSymbs, err := parser.ParseChange(c, c.Id == t.RootId())
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}