Strange Fruit: Variations on an unconventional theme in a medieval French poem

I enjoyed reading Jason Chin's section on creating his illustrated manuscript for the Mythological Alphabet (p. 149-50). By creating a single large image for each letter, his illustrations seemed more like tarot cards than "traditional" illustrated manuscripts, which often featured small images along the bottom and sides of the page rather than large images on the center of the page.

I went searching for some interesting images from illustrated manuscripts, and a friend pointed me towards these...rather unconventional images. (The poem is called Roman de la Rose, and while most of the text is credited to 13th c., these images are believed to be from a husband and wife illustrating team in the 14th c. according to my source for the images.)

Yes, that's a nun...picking a pack of pickled peckers.

I really have no idea why penis trees were a thing. Seems kind of a shame it fell out of fashion.
(Still life with woodpecker, anyone? ;)