Catholic cemeteries often have crosses made from logs over the grave. Closer inspection often reveals the acronym W.O.W. on the marker. These stones are the product of Woodmen of the World, a 19th and 20th century fraternal organization which provided such stones as part of the insurance available to members. They were usually sculpted by local craftsmen who used sandstone, concrete, and other materials to create the monuments. They symbolize, undoubtably, the cutting off of life, as well as membership in the organization.
Willows allow anyone a perpetual mourner.
Dark yew trees add a gloomy, somber air to English churchyards. Anglo settlers brought them to America where they have become a feature of many graveyards. English cemeteries became yew-tree reserves because the branches were used to make bows. Once a year, parishioners would clip the churchyard yews so that other cemeteries might be filled with the victims of war. As cemetery landscapes become diverse and our heirs to this earth wonder for what reason we chose this vegetation, other plants will enter the taxonomies of symbolic sepulchre gardening.