A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree. Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term twig often refers to a terminus, while bough refers only to branches coming directly from the trunk.
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus Salix, are around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level, resulting in a stool. New growth emerges, and after a number of years, the coppiced tree is harvested, and the cycle begins anew. Pollarding is a similar process carried out at a higher level on the tree in order to prevent grazing animals from eating new shoots. Daisugi, is a similar Japanese technique.
The Kennet is a tributary of the River Thames in Southern England. Most of the river is straddled by the North Wessex Downs AONB. The lower reaches have been made navigable as the Kennet Navigation, which – together with the Avon Navigation, the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames – links the cities of Bristol and London.
Salix purpurea, the purple willowpurpleosier willow or purple osier, is a species of willow native to most of Europe and western Asia north to the British Isles, Poland, and the Baltic States.
Salix viminalis, the basket willow, common osier or osier, is a species of willow native to Europe, Western Asia, and the Himalayas.
The Bitter Withy or Mary Mild is an English folk song reflecting an unusual and apocryphal vernacular idea of Jesus Christ. The withy of the title is the Willow and the song gives an explanation as to why the willow tree rots from the centre out, rather than the outside in. The song was recorded by the Kingston Trio on their album The Last Month of the Year. English folk artist John Tams recorded the song on his album The Reckoning and is contained in The Definitive Collection (2007) also.
Cornus sericea, the red osier or red-osier dogwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cornaceae, native to much of North America. It has sometimes been considered a synonym of the Asian species Cornus alba. Other names include red brush, red willow, redstem dogwood, redtwig dogwood, red-rood, American dogwood, creek dogwood, and western dogwood.
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by hydrophilic plants. Riparian zones are important in ecology, environmental resource management, and civil engineering because of their role in soil conservation, their habitat biodiversity, and the influence they have on fauna and aquatic ecosystems, including grasslands, woodlands, wetlands, or even non-vegetative areas. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone,riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a riparian zone. The word riparian is derived from Latin ripa, meaning "river bank".
The River Dun is a tributary of the River Kennet, flowing through Wiltshire and Berkshire in England. Its main source is in the parish of Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire and it flows 16 kilometres (10 mi) in a northeasterly direction into Berkshire. It discharges into the Kennet at Hungerford, which has a smaller average flow and width upstream of that point.
In tableware the Osier pattern is a moulded basket-weave pattern in delicate relief used round the borders of porcelain plates and other pieces of flatware. It originated in Germany in the 1730s on Meissen porcelain, and was later often imitated by other producers. It is presumed to have been devised by Johann Joachim Kaendler, the celebrated head modeller at Meissen. The name comes from Salix viminalis, or the common osier, a Eurasian species of willow, whose thin, flexible, shoots or withies were and are much used for various types of wickerwork, usually encouraged by coppicing the plants.
Salix triandra, with the common names almond willow, almond-leaved willow or black maul willow, is a species of willow native to Europe and Western and Central Asia. It is found from south-eastern England east to Lake Baikal, and south to Spain and the Mediterranean east to the Caucasus, and the Alborz Mountains. It usually grows in riparian habitats, on river and stream banks, and in wetlands.
Pavenham Osier Beds is a 1.3 hectare nature reserve south of Pavenham, on the banks of the River Great Ouse, in Bedfordshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
The Riddy is an 8.4 hectare flood meadow and Local Nature Reserve located in Sandy, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, bordering the River Ivel. Owned by Sandy Town Council but managed by both the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity, the 7.7 hectares site gains its name from a small stream which flows through the eastern end of the reserve. The different habitats in the Riddy support a diverse range of species, including a multiplicity of grasses and flowering plants in the meadows, aquatic plants and water voles which inhabit the ditches, ponds and stream, and birds which feed and hunt across the reserve.
Putcher fishing is a type of fishing which employs multiple putcher baskets, set in a fixed wooden frame, against the tide in a river estuary, notably on the River Severn, in England and South East Wales. Putchers are placed in rows, standing four or five high, in a wooden "rank" set out against the incoming and/or outgoing tides.
Kinnikinnick is a Native American and First Nations herbal smoking mixture, made from a traditional combination of leaves or barks. Recipes for the mixture vary, as do the uses, from social, to spiritual to medicinal.
Old River Severn, Upper Lode is a 3.72-hectare (9.2-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1985. It is a cross county border site between Gloucestershire and Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
Osier is a ghost town in Delta County, in the U.S. state of Michigan.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Viminalis' [:osier-leaved] was listed by the Späth nursery of Berlin as Ulmus scabraMill. var. viminalis in 1890 and as Ulmus montana viminalis from 1892. Though Späth's catalogues stated that it was "also distributed under the name planera aquatica", it remained in his lists under 'elm' and was accessioned by the Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, and by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as an elm cultivar. A similar misidentification occurred in the mid-20th century, when the Siberian elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Poort Bulten' was for many years commercially propagated under the name Planera aquatica or 'water elm'. As the leaves of osier or Salix viminalis, however, differ markedly from those of Planera aquatica, being long, thin and tapering at both ends, Spath's name 'Viminalis' for this elm cultivar confirms that its leaves were not Planera-like. The probable explanation for the early distribution name is that Planera was the old name for Zelkova, a close relative of elm with willow-like leaves. It is therefore unlikely that 'Viminalis' was related in any way to the 19th-century elm cultivar Ulmus 'Planeroides'.
An osier bed is where historically willows were planted and coppiced to produce withies, which were used for basket making, fish-traps, and other purposes. The willow species salix viminalis, known as the "common osier" was typically, although not exclusively, grown for this purpose. The marshy fringes of rivers, especially those which were often flooded and those with small islands, aits, eyots, or holts, were the most common locations for osier beds. Willow rods (cuttings) would be planted, which root easily in moist ground, and the growth of the willow withies would be cut every one or two years.
