Pussy Willow Tree
Pussy Willow (Salix discolor, Muehl.)-Shrub, or small tree, to 25 feet high, with stout branchlets, purplish red with pubescent coating. Buds reddish, flattened, pointed. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute at both ends, irregularly serrate, often crenate, thick, 3 to 5 inches long, bright green, with pale or silvery lining; midribs broad, yellow; stipules leaf-like, half-moon shaped; petioles slender. Flowers, March, often showing earlier, before the leaves; aments silky, oval, grey, turning yellow as flowers open, Fruits aments of beaked capsules, each long pointed, on long stem, with broad, hairy scale. Preferred habitat, swamps and moist hillsides. Distribution, Nova Scotia to Manitoba; south to Delaware and Missouri.This is the familiar bog willow which we rarely recognise in leaf. The twigs are usually cut when the little furry catkins peep out in late winter. Florists in Eastern cities buy large quantities of these twigs in winter, and force them out for the early spring trade.