Whomping Willow = Hornbeam Tree

[Steve]

---  "Annemehr" <annemehr at ...> wrote:
>
> ---  "Steve" <bboyminn@> wrote:
> >
> 
> > This hornbeam had short extremely thick trunk and 
> > short thick main branches, but then instead of
> > sub-branches, it had clusters of thin willow like 
> > branches sprouting from the main heavy branches. In 
> > other words exactly as you see the Whomping Willow in
> > the movies.
> > 
> 
> It didn't grow that way naturally, it's been trimmed at
> the same spot every year (or maybe two).  That's why the
> trunk keeps growing thicker as it normally would, but 
> then the branches are alway young  and slim.
> 
> I saw a lot of trees like that in Britain; I guess they 
> do that to keep the tree to a smaller size.
> 
> I'll keep an eye out for that book, though -- I do like
> trees!
> 
> Annemehr
>

bboyminn:

As DUNG mentioned the technique is called 'pollarding', I
remember seeing that in the book but didn't understand what
it meant. None the less, it was the spitting image of the
Whomping Willow. I suspect that is where they go the idea
for the movie version of the Whomping Willow.

Steve/bboyminn