Silvery bay willow catkins
Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Willow catkins. Bay willow
Bay willow Raudremmelgas Salix pentandra
In late autumn there is no need to go searching for bay willows, the tree simply leaps into sight. Trees on road banks are almost bare, here and there some lonely leaves flutter. In sunshine some trees or shrubs however appear as if wrapped in a silvery mist, clearly visible even in the grey autumn: it is the bay willow; its fruits opened only in October, and remain on the tree and viable until early spring.
The bay willow is quite common in Estonia growing on the banks of waters, humid meadows and ditch banks, as a high, dense, rounded shrub, or more rarely, as a low tree, growing occasionally up to a dozen metres tall.
Bay willow shoots shine as if they were varnished, green or reddish-brown in colour.
Willow species growing as shrubs are often all called "paju“ in Estonian, and those growing as trees "remmelgas“.
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