Broad oval leaves, barely twice as long as wide and grey-woolly beneath, on a tree of damp scrub and waste ground
Goat willow. Most willows have long narrow leaves.
Nature · Trees
Goat willow
Deciduous · to 10 m · flowers before leafing
Salix caprea — Salicaceae
Also called pussy willow or great sallow, the goat willow is the broad-leaved willow of damp scrub, wood edges and waste ground — nothing like the narrow-leaved willows of riverbanks. Its silver-grey male catkins, out before the leaves, are the 'palm' of Palm Sunday in Britain, and they are among the first nectar of the year for queen bumblebees.
How to know it
How to spot them
- ▸Broad oval leaves, only about twice as long as wide, grey-woolly beneath with a wavy, slightly downturned tip
- ▸Silvery-grey catkins in March on bare twigs, the male ones turning yellow with pollen; dioecious
- ▸Twigs stout, greenish-brown, slightly hairy; bark grey with diamond fissures
- ▸Wood beneath the bark is smooth, without long raised ridges (striae) — the test that separates it from grey willow, whose peeled twig is ridged for 2–3 cm
- ▸Often thick with bean galls, red kidney-shaped swellings on the leaves
How to know it
Silvery-grey furry catkins on bare twigs in March, turning yellow with pollen and feeding the first queen bumblebees
Goat willow — pussy willow.
Its catkin-bearing branches stand in for palm fronds in British Palm Sunday processions
Goat willow, also called sallow or palm willow.
Its specific epithet means 'of the goat', from a sixteenth-century woodcut showing one browsing it
Goat willow — Salix caprea.
Male and female flowers grow on separate trees, and the bark of the genus yielded salicin, the forerunner of aspirin
Goat willow. Willows are dioecious.
Purple emperor butterflies lay their eggs on it, high in the canopy of woodland rides
Goat willow — the sallow is the purple emperor's larval foodplant.
Quick-fire facts
- •Salix caprea — caprea means 'of the goat', from an early herbal illustration of a goat feeding on it
- •Also called pussy willow, great sallow or palm willow
- •Willows are dioecious: male and female catkins grow on separate trees
- •The broad leaf shape is unusual in the genus and the quickest way to name it
- •Its catkins are an important early nectar and pollen source for emerging queen bumblebees and other insects
- •Sallow is the larval foodplant of the purple emperor butterfly
- •Willow bark yields salicin, from which salicylic acid and ultimately aspirin were developed
- •'Sallow' the colour and Salix share a root; the common name group also gives us the surname Sallows
- •Bean galls, red kidney-shaped swellings on the leaves, are made by the sawfly Pontania
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Goat willow (Salix caprea)