Please confirm

[Pablo]

Hi folks,

Tree ID is my worst subject. Can anyone confirm this photo as grape willow or "pussy willow" bloom/blossom? It is certainly more yellow when viewed at a distance.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c269/prmaklpboo/DSC00096.jpg

By the way, why is it called grape willow and pussy willow (if it is)>

Cheers

Pablo

[fred gordon]

To me they look like Pussy Willows which are the male catkins of the Goat Willow. I have always assumed they were called 'pussy' because they were 'cat kins'. My book on Tree Wisdom, by Jacqueline memory Paterson, indicates that the goat willow leaves were customarily carried to churches on palm Sunday, in remembrance of the branches of palm strewn before Jesus as he entered Jerusalem.
Hope this helps.

[Toddy]

There's another reason they are called Goat Willow.....I make cordage from willow and demonstrate doing so at the Crannog....I tidied up the loose ends, the sticky out bits, by biting them off ('til my dentist visited when I was demonstrating :o ) Most willow is bitter, the salicylates/ natural aspirin type stuff cause this, but Goat willow is sweet to taste and Goats thrive on the stuff.
Catkin is supposed to be from Katteken, kittens tail, something soft and furry.

Cheers,
Toddy

[Pablo]

Thanks a lot...of cause I meant to say "Goat" not "Grape" :o

Still now I know where "Goat" came from...thanks again.

[elma]

Toddy.
when is the best time to harvest willow bark?

Ian

[Toddy]

Well it's lifting off easily up here, now, and I can usually get it right up until it starts to 'set' into this years growth, so late May maybe mid June. After that it's a pain to get the outer sperated from the inner bark.
Try using a small paintscraper to lift and free the bark; it's surprisingly effective :D

atb,
Toddy

[Moonraker]

'capra' is Italian for goat, hence the epiphet (species name) of caprea, i.e.

Salix caprea = Goat Willow

It also gives us the origin of the saying to 'caper' around, or to act whimsically, like a goat ;)

I often refer to then as them in the generic term of Sallow (from the OE. salwe, AS. sealh) because the type of place they grow seems 'sallow' to me.

And, as Emerson said;
"The sallow knows the basketmaker's thumb"