The Nine-Trunked Willow of Sereikiškės

Nine trunks, one tree. The count sits in the tree's official name rather than in a description someone added later: it is registered as the devynkamienis gluosnis, the nine-trunked willow, and the encyclopedia entry for the garden calls it exactly the same thing. Multi-stemmed trees are the running theme of Bernardinai Garden. Within a few hundred metres of this willow stand a four-trunked large-leaved lime and an ash whose own sources cannot agree whether it has three trunks or four. Whether that is old coppicing grown out, storm damage, or simply what a wet riverside park does to its trees, nobody has written down. Nor has anyone dated this one, and no source commits to which willow it is. White willow and crack willow are both ordinary in Lithuanian parks and the register stops at the genus. Both of those gaps are the kind a person standing in front of the tree could close in a minute, so if you get close enough to look, tell us what you see. It has been protected as a municipal heritage object since 1996, stands beside the main path through the garden about ten minutes from Cathedral Square, and shares a short walk with the oldest oak in the city.