These sycamores in a bed in the gardens around the battery in Charleston, South Carolina have been pruned to submission. I could feel these plants wanting to stretch their great limbs, but the humans in charge have different ideas.
Actually, the architectural quality of the pruned trees is quiet beautiful, and with the leaves gone, the nobbed forms maintain a lot of visual interest. The simple structure of the sycamores planted in rows enhances the stark lines of the built environment around the battery and contrasts great with the blue sky and ocean, the heavy chain and the tan marsh reeds.
when we moved to california, i was shocked how they hacked so many of the trees. (it was the first time i heard someone call a tree "messy.") but you are right, there is a certain symmetry to it all.
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