Crossword Genius

Tree forced flat to sprawl among scattered pears (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

espalier

'tree forced flat' is the definition.
(tree trained to grow flat against a wall)

'sprawl among scattered pears' is the wordplay.
'sprawl' becomes 'lie' (I've seen this in another clue).
'among' is an insertion indicator.
'scattered' indicates anagramming the letters.
'pears' with letters rearranged gives 'espar'.
'lie' put within 'espar' is 'ESPALIER'.

'to' is the link.

(Other definitions for espalier that I've seen before include "flattened tree" , "Trained fruit-tree" , "train a plant" , "garden frame" , "Tree trained against a wall; pear lies (anag.)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent, The Times and The Telegraph.
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