Pussy willow

A goat willow’s flowers, or catkins, are known as pussy willow because they look like furry grey kittens’ paws. They appear in February, some weeks before the willow’s leaves, one of the earliest signs of spring in the reserve.

Goat willow, Salix caprea, also called sallow, is dioecious, meaning male and female flowers grow on separate trees. The male catkins are round, grey and fluffy, becoming yellow when they are ripe with pollen; the female catkins are longer, spikier and greener. Both are examples of an inflorescence, a large numbers of flowers in a single compact arrangement.

[1] Male goat willow catkins ripe with pollen and [2] female catkins in which each spike is clearly a separate flower. Both pictures were taken in the reserve.

We have lots of goat willow; it likes our damp clay soil. It’s a coloniser that seeds prolifically and germinates best in the boundary between woodland and meadow. Keep a look out for pussy willow catkins as you walk in the reserve this Valentine’s Day?

Header picture: pussy willow by Heineken (CC BY-SA 3.0)