A Dutch pollard willow

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-).