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Bay willow

 

 

There is no need to go searching for bay willows, the tree simply catches your attention. The trees growing at road verges are bare, with only solitary flapping  leaves. But in sunshine some trees or shrubs seem to be clothed in a silvery mist, standing out even in the autumn grey: it is bay willow; its fruits opened in October and remain on the tree until early spring, still able to germinate.

 

Bay willows are quite common at road ditch embankments where they really catch attention, on banks of water bodies, in moist hayfields, growing as a high and dense dome-shaped shrub or, less frequently, a low tree (large bay willows are rare).