Goat Willow

Male and female flowers of the Goat Willow are specific to individual trees. Male catkins ripen with a yellow pollen.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Salix caprea
Family: 
Willows
Family Latin name: 
SALICACEAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants
Vernacular names: 

Sallow, Pussy Willow

Species description

Species description

The leaves of this native tree are oval with a pointed tip.  In bud in March it is known as pussy willow, or palm, and flowers before the leaves open.  This tree once provided fodder for goats, including the bark.  The wood was used to make clothes pegs (bound by tin strips) and tally sticks.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

Willows are a valuable resource owing to their fast growth, abundant new shoots (withies), and supple texture. Pollarding, the severe pruning at the crown, promotes new growth and extends the life of the tree. Pollarding is done on rotation every 2 - 15 years as required.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.