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Goat willow

 

 

With its fluffy catkins the goat willow is eye-catching in forest clearings and passages. It grows fast as young and starts growing from shoots at a cut stump or seeds blown in, competing successfully with other fast-growing broadleaf trees. It grows well too on ditch banks, field verges and refuse sites and it is well visible  everywhere in early spring.

 

As a young shrub it looks like a bunch of shoots but at older age it is a low wide tree – it may become up to a hundred years old. Young shoots spread out and they are covered by downy hairs. Last year’s bare and stocky shoots have  marked scars after the previous year's leaves.

 

When the weather improves the early and good honey plant will offer valuable pollen and nectar for different insects, butterflies and bees.