Pussy Willows

One of my fondest boyhood memories dates back to my pre-teen years when dad would stop, en route to work on our farm on a Sunday in late March or early April, and hike with my brothers and me along the Kewaunee and Green Bay & Western railroad tracks west of town in search of our eagerly-waited-for annual bouquet of Pussy Willows.

A big Weeping Willow covered with frost

I can’t recall if we kept them in water until the long drooping catkins developed. Most likely we cut off their supply of moisture before they reached that messy stage, apparently we were more fond of the warm fuzzy, grayish-white, plump little “pussies.”

My best educated guess is that those Pussy Willows were from the small shrubby willow, Salix (SAY-liks) discolor, usually growing up to between 10 – 15 feet in limey bogs and along the edges of swamps and wet ditches. They and many of the other small willows like to have their feet fairly wet.

The only other willow I can remember from childhood was the Weeping Willow. As boys we were Kewaunee’s experts at finding the shortest distance between two points – shortcuts, that is. One that we took toward home quite often was a diagonal cut through the west lawn of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Claussen, that is we took it whenever their gardener, Julius Wadtke, wasn’t in sight. It went right past a huge Weeping Willow, Salix babylonica. What great whips they produced for our home-from-school games. These picturesque trees, which need a very special setting to bring out their great beauty, are native to western China. Their bright chrome-yellow pendulous spring twigs remain a great favorite of ours year after year.

I credit my best Door County native plant learning to my good friend through the years, Dr. Jim Zimmerman. Sadly the great and important work he did in recognizing, researching and cataloguing the natural resources of our county has been virtually ignored by our planners and developers. One of the most eye-opening hikes we took was along a Door County public hiking trail near some pristine wetlands that were bordered by several different species of willows.

A willow twig showing the buds with a single scale cover.

Jim always recognized the work of great botanists done in past years, often with the most difficult of plant groups to learn. One of the several willows we studied that day was Bebbs Willow, Salix bebbiana, named to honor Michael Schuck Bebb who became the first person to formally study the extremely difficult willows. He grew up on a farm in Ohio and did some of his first serious botanical studies at Beloit College in southern Wisconsin. In time he became one of the world’s experts with the willows.

Two features of the Bebbs Willow were pointed out that day. It’s the only small tree willow with entire leaves, that is the leaf margins are smooth compared to the toothed margins of all other willows. The other noticeable feature is the diamond-shaped cankers on the trunks caused by a certain species of fungus. Hence it is one of the so-called “diamond willows.” With bark removed, this handsome feature can produce beautiful canes and walking sticks.

Jim was incredibly skilled at hearing and recognizing bird calls and songs, and it was during our “willow” hike that he was able to identify several nesting warblers, flycatchers and other birds. He stressed the importance of willow thickets as home to many nesting birds, browsing deer, beavers, and especially Ruffed Grouse, which rely on the buds of willows as a vital part of their winter food.

Certain shrubs and trees, such as willows and poplars, are dioecious (die-EE-shus) meaning that the male and female flowers are on separate plants. The Pussy Willows which interest people in spring are on the male plants. If a tree is monoecious (mo-NEE-shus) it has individual male and female flowers but on the same plant, such as the oaks and maples. A perfect plant produces flowers that bear both male (stamens) and female (pistils), organs of reproduction. They frequently lack petals and sepals. If they are complete flowers, such as on apple or cherry trees, they have sepals and petals as well.

The Pussy Willows, which so many people include in their lives as a regular spring ritual, are usually shrubs, as most often is the Pussy Willow, (S. discolor.) The only native willow trees of this region, the Black Willows (S. nigra), thrive along the edges of wetlands and especially the banks of streams and rivers. What makes all willows, including the shrubs and trees, so difficult to study and even to identify is that they quite freely hybridize. Believe me, the large willow tree species such as the Peachleaf Willow, can be challenging to accurately identify.

A huge Peachleaf Willow in Sturgeon Bay with Mike Madden (left) and Nick Anderson (right).

With the unbelievable exposure, via TV specials, I remember being awestruck at the sight of a willow forest in the Arctic tundra standing a mere five or six inches tall! Indeed, the northern hemisphere is rich with willows ranging from tiny shrubs and trees to 125 foot-tall White Willow trees. Roughly 100 species of willow shrubs and trees are native to the U.S. and Canada. Thirty or more of these are classed as trees and grow in this country.

Locate a very cold wet environment, such as the edges of some of the open swales at the Ridges Sanctuary or the numerous small “pot hole” swamps in northeastern Wisconsin, and there you very likely will find a willow shrub, S. serissima (ser-ISS-i-ma) that is in a class by itself. Instead of producing spring “pussy willows” theirs don’t appear until autumn, hence its name of Autumn Willow. Hike eastward on Sandy Ridge in late fall, turn left onto the first bridge, pause and look toward your left or west, and you will be sure to see six-to-eight-foot-tall shrubs bearing what appear to be many large tufts of white cotton, the Autumn Willow.

Another of my favorite small willow shrubs at the Ridges grows along that same bridge crossing close to the northern edge (and in other swales as well), the Canada Willow, S. candida, having leaves which are of a leathery texture, gray-green above and very whitish below. Their bright yellow male catkins each late spring are beautiful to behold.

An interesting, easy-too-observe feature of only the willow genus, Salix, is that the buds throughout the cold months are covered by single scales. All other shrub and tree buds have two or more scales.

How grateful we are in many ways for the fascinating willows, but especially for helping to usher in spring by way of something as simple but beautiful as a bouquet of Pussy Willows.