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Plant of the Day
Friday 24 October 2025
A good start to the autumn colours is the foliage of Parrotia persica (Persian ironwood, iron tree). This wide-spreading, often multi-stemmed deciduous tree or large shrub also has attractive flaking bark. In late winter there are small red flowers on the bare twigs.
Jill Raggett
Ai Weiwei. Iron Tree. 2012. 247 x 279 x 279”.
“The trees are dead wood from the mountain ranges in Jiangxi. Those branches were struck by lightning or they simply got too old and had been left abandoned for decades. So I thought it would be nice to put it back together as one tree, but from 100 different locations and belonging to different types of trees. We assembled them together to have all the details of a normal tree. At the same time, you're not comfortable, there's a strangeness there, an unfamiliar-ness. And it's just like trying to imagine what the tree was like."
Exhaustion
Welcome to the Torture Chamber™
Okay, I’m not totally satisfied with the mirror effect, since the reflections should technically be there countless times with mirrors on every side of the torture chamber, but at this point I fear I’m simply not able to manage the picture like that (still SO MUCH to learn). And I sincerely hope you can overlook that. Anyway, all in all I’m happy how it turned out in the end (at least there IS a reflection XD).
And don’t blame the Daroga for taking his shoes and socks of, when the heat became unbearable. He kept his dignity by keeping the rest of his clothes on ;P.
Pity him, he’s really on the treshold of giving up.
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Plant of the Day
Thursday 16 November 2023
This is a young plant of Parrotia persica (Persian ironwood, iron tree, ironwood) which becomes a wide-spreading, normally multi-stemmed deciduous tree or large shrub. In autumn the leaves turn yellow, red and purple falling to reveal the trunks of flaking bark and small crimson flowers on bare twigs.
Jill Raggett
POEM: The Iron Tree
POEM: The Iron Tree
I am the Iron Tree. I stand upon the Mountain at the center of the World. My trunk is straight and strong. My roots go down deep into the earth. They spread out and drink the waters of the four rivers of the underworld, blue-green and glacier-cold. My taproot sinks to the center of the earth and brings up the heartfire. I am nourished and empowered. My branches reach up high into the heavens. They…
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Ai Weiwei, Iron Tree, 2013 by jacquemart Via Flickr: Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
