The Tulip Season Willow

The crack willow is named for the noise, and the noise is the strategy. Its twigs snap off cleanly at the base in wind, float away down the water and root wherever they wash up, which is how one willow turns into a riverbank full of them. This one grows below Major's Hill Park on the slope toward the Ottawa River, with the National Gallery of Canada on one side and the twin spires of Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica on the other. There are few better places in the city to stand under a tree. Mid-May is when the ground around it is worth the walk on its own account. The park is planted out for the Canadian Tulip Festival, which began with a gift of bulbs from the Dutch royal family after the Second World War, and the beds run right up to the willow while the crowds work their way along them. The tree's own contribution to spring is a couple of weeks of small green catkins in April that nobody has ever crossed town for. Willows grow fast, hollow early and are almost always younger than they look, which makes guessing at this one pointless. The register names it and records no age, no girth and no planting date. If anyone has put a tape around it, we would take the number.