A Dutch pollard willow

in photography •  8 years ago 

Or knotwilg, as we have it.

These willow trees are harvested for their thin and strong twigs, and these twigs are used for basketry and other wickerwork. Basketry used to be very important, and it had its own guild, because it was one of the few packaging materials available for transporting goods. Several generations of my family were basket makers a few centuries back.

The regular trimming gives these trees their distinctive shape, and they were very typical for the Dutch landscape. You see less and less of them these days, because plastics etc. have replaced wicker as a material for making things.

This one stands just outside of my home town:


Olympus Stylus 1s, 33mm, ISO100, f8, 1/80s

BTW, does anybody know a Russian word for such a cut willow tree? "Вырезанная ива для плетения корзин" is a bit long 8-).

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Very cool shot, I like it!!!

Down in the Carolinas they have lots of Crepe Myrtles, and when you see that kind of aggressive pollarding some people refer to it as Crepe Murder 😉

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Why do they do that? Is there a use for the twigs or is it just fashionable to over-prune them?
The shape of these pollard willows has been around here in The Netherlands for so long, probably for over a thousand years, that most of us here see the shape as normal.

Wow it's very nice!

Wonderful tree!