The Quincunx

A good friend and colleague, now sadly departed this earth, used to much enjoy an after-dinner search for obscure words in the Oxford English Dictionary. Thus it was that I first came to hear of the Quincunx, the optimal way to space out trees in an orchard:

1538.  Quincunx, quincuncis,..an order of settynge of trees in a gardeyne or orchard veraye exactelye, that whyche waye soo euer that a manne dydde looke, the trees stoode dyrectely oone agaynste an nother.

Or as we now put it: A pattern used for planting trees in which they are arranged in one or more groups of five, so placed that four occupy the corners of a square or rectangle and the fifth occupies its centre; a group or plantation of trees laid out in this manner.

The photograph shows some of the new plantings in our village community flower beds. It might not be too obvious but we attempted to plant them in the quincunx style. You can read much more about the gardener's use of the quincunx here.