Let us again consider the concept of the Nicholson – which as regular readers will know is defined as a manmade object, preferably a single vertical – a street lamp, a telegraph pole, a fence post - that has been taken over by natural growth, so that a plant is using the manmade object as a climbing frame and support.
This is not my invention (obviously), but I came up with the name, you know the way Adam came up with names in the Garden of Eden
Some things, once you start looking, you see them everywhere, but in my experience this isn’t true of the Nicholson. As I walk through the world looking for them they’re just uncommon enough to be interesting but not so uncommon as to be frustrating.
Of course some Nicholsons are purer than others. In some cases a plant may climb a manmade post and then get tangled up in nature, like these below, but I think they still fit the definition. Purity isn’t everything.
And this has become one of my very favourite Nicholsons – greenery climbing up a graveyard obelisk – two of my milder obsessions combined.
Below I think is definitely a Nicholson because the ivy (or whatever) is climbing up the fence posts but then it’s also climbing along chain link which isn’t quite as impressive as climbing a single upright, but you can’t have everything.
And I would love this to count as a Nicholson: greenery climbing up a bridge, which is certainly a manmade object - but on balance I’m really not sure it fits the bill.
And here for your viewing pleasure is a photograph of Nicholson photographing some Nicholsons.
Photo by Caroline Gannon.
