espaliers

Noun

espalier (plural espaliers)

1. A latticework used to shape or train the branches of a tree or shrub into a two-dimensional ornamental or useful design, as along a wall or fence.
   • The garment stalls carried the traditional blue vine-dressers' outfits, sunhats, and the great willow pitchforks grown in espalier at villages like Sauve.1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 223
2. A plant that has been shaped in this manner.
   • It is on this rocky surface that one finds many of the growth forms associated with extreme life conditions: polsters, mat plants, espaliers.1915 April, F. J. Smiley, “The alpine and subapline vegetation of the Lake Tahoe region”, in Botanical Gazette, volume 59, page 265
3. A row of plants that have been shaped in this manner.
   • Often some night-animal, hedgehog or weasel, setting out on the hunt, disturbed the lovers, or sometimes they heard a ripe peach falling all alone from the espalier.1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter XII, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part II, page 218

See all 4 meanings of espalier