Goat Willow

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Goat Willow

Salix caprea (Goat Willow, also known as the Pussy Willow or Great Sallow), is a common species of willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere....
native to Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and western and central Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
.

It is a deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means falling off at maturity or tending to fall off and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe....
shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
or small tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
, reaching a height of 6-12 m, rarely to 20 m. The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are 3-12 cm long and from 2-8 cm wide, broader than most other willows. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are soft silky, silvery 3-7 cm long catkin

Catkin

A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollination but sometimes insect pollinated ....
s, produced in early spring before the new leaves appear; the male and female catkins are on different plants (dioecious

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
).

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Encyclopedia

Salix caprea (Goat Willow, also known as the Pussy Willow or Great Sallow), is a common species of willow

Willow

Europe

Asia

Deciduous

Shrub

TREE

Leaf

Flower

Catkin

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
). The male catkins mature yellow at pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder consisting of Gametophyte , which produce the male gametes of spermatophyta. A hard coat covering the pollen grain protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens of the flower to the pistil of the next flower....
release, the female catkins maturing pale green. The fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
is a small capsule

Capsule (fruit)

In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a dehiscent structure composed of two or more carpels, that, at maturity, split apart to release the seeds within....
5-10 mm long containing numerous minute seed

Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s embedded in fine cottony hairs. The seeds are very small (about 0.2 mm) with the fine hairs aiding dispersal; they require bare soil

Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
to germinate

Germination

Germination is the process whereby growth emerges from a period of dormancy. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an flowering plant or gymnosperm....
.

There are two varieties

Variety (biology)

Variety is a low-level taxonomic rank used in botanical nomenclature.In botanical nomenclature or biological nomenclature, variety is a low-level taxonomic rank below that of species and signifies members of different populations can interbreed easily, but not usually such that all traits will run true, and in fact usually will blend...
:

Salix caprea var. caprea. Lowland regions throughout the range. Leaves thinly hairy above, densely hairy below, 5-12 cm long; stipules persistent until autumn.
Salix caprea var. sphacelata (Sm.) Wahlenb. (syn. S. caprea var. coaetanea Hartm.; S. coaetanea (Hartm.) Floderus). High altitudes in the mountains of central and northern Europe (Alps, Carpathians, Scotland, Scandinavia). Leaves densely silky-hairy on both sides, 3-7 cm long; stipules early deciduous.

The scientific name, and the common name Goat Willow, probably derive from the first known illustration of the species in Hieronymus Bock

Hieronymus Bock

Hieronymus Bock , also seen as "Boch", also known under his latinisation name Hieronymus Tragus, was a German botany, physician, and Lutheran minister who began the transition from medieval botany to the modern scientific worldview by arranging plants by their relation or resemblance....
's 1546 Herbal

Herbal

A herbal is a book, often illustrated, that describes the appearance, medicinal properties, and other characteristics of plants used in herbal medicine....
, where the plant is shown being browsed by a goat

Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae....
. The species was historically also widely used as a browse for goats, to which Bock's illustration may refer.

Ecology

Salix caprea occurs both in wet environments, such as riverbanks and lake shores, and in drier sites, wherever bare soil becomes available due to ground disturbance.

Hybrids with several other willow species are common, notably with Salix cinerea (S. × reichardtii), Salix aurita
Salix aurita

Salix aurita is a species of willow distributed over much of Europe. It is a 2.5 m high shrub, distinguished from similar, but slightly larger Salix cinerea by reddish petiole s and young twigs....
(S. × multinervis), Salix viminalis (S. × smithiana), and Salix purpurea (S. × sordida). Populations of Salix caprea often show hybrid introgression.

Unlike almost all other willows, pure specimens of Salix caprea do not take root readily from cuttings; if a willow resembling the species does root easily, it is probably a hybrid with another species of willow.

The leaves are used as a food resource by several species of Lepidoptera, and are also commonly eaten by browsing mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s.

Cultivation and uses

A small number of cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of its decorative or useful characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when Plant propagation it retains those characteristics....
s have been selected for garden use. The most common is S. caprea 'Kilmarnock', with stiffly pendulous shoots, forming a mop-head; it is a male clone. A similar female clone is S. caprea 'Weeping Sally'. As they do not form a leader, they are grafted

Grafting

Grafting is a method of asexual plant propagation widely used in agriculture and horticulture where the tissues of one plant are encouraged to fuse with those of another....
on erect stems of other willows; the height of these cultivars is determined by the height at which the graft is made. Plants can also be grown from greenwood cuttings make attractive creeping mounds. Hardwood cuttings are often difficult to root.

Both tannin

Tannin

Tannins are astringent, bitter plant polyphenols that either bind and Precipitation or shrink proteins. The astringency from the tannins is what causes the dry and puckery feeling in the mouth following the consumption of red wine or an unripened fruit....
and salicin can be extracted from Goat Willow bark. The tree is not considered a good source of timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Lumber, i.e. wood materials* Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S. state of Oregon* Timber , a 1984 arcade game by Bally Midway...
as its wood is both brittle and known to crackle violently if burned.

As with the closely related Salix discolor
Salix discolor

Salix discolor is a species of willow native to North America, one of two species commonly called Pussy Willow.It is native to the northern forests and wetlands of Canada and the northeastern contiguous United States ....
(American Pussy Willow), it is also often grown for cut flowers. See Pussy Willow

Pussy Willow

Pussy willow is a name given to many of the smaller species of the genus Salix when their furry catkins are young in early spring. These species include :...
for further cultural information and uses, which apply to both species.