The Bruno-Morpurgo-Park Weeping Willow

Vienna protects plenty of trees for being old. This weeping willow in Atzgersdorf was protected for its character. It is Natural Monument 814, and the monument list says the reason plainly: it gives the Bruno-Morpurgo-Park its look. It does that lopsidedly. The list describes an asymmetric crown about ten metres across and roughly twelve metres tall, the long hanging shoots falling further on one side than the other. When it was designated, the trunk measured 2.40 metres round at one metre up. The city's tree cadastre now records 3.05 metres. That is how willows behave: they put on girth fast, which is also why a thick willow is a poor guide to age. So we do not give one. The cadastre carries a planting year, but nothing we have found shows it to be more than an estimate, and on a tree that grows this quickly a guess would be worse than nothing. What can be said is that weeping willows are not long-lived trees, and one large enough and shapely enough to be singled out by the city is worth a stop on its own terms. It stands in a small public park on Endresstraße in the 23rd district, free and open. Come in early spring, when the curtain of shoots turns yellow-green before almost anything else around it has leafed. If you know when it was planted, tell us.