Plant-Lore

Collecting the folklore and uses of plants

Crack willow

1. Two Sussex men who were felling a crack willow tree on Bookham Common gave tree the name widow’s willow as it is liable to shed its branches without warning and injure anyone who attempts to cut it down [Great Bookham, Surrey, October 1979].

Image: Old Deer Park, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames; August 2015.