Pollard

This willow has seen better days, and is now providing a home for all sorts of other plants as it leans every more precariously over the river. It was pollarded this spring and there's vigorous regrowth emerging at the top, so it look as as if there's plenty of life left in it yet.  I wonder how many different species of plant are living on it - no doubt quite a few, and taken together with insects and other creatures the tree is probably a quite a busy ecosystem. Everything depends on everything else...