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Along roads and on ditch banks shrubs with reddish branches can be seen; in the winter black-and-white landscape they can even look all red in places. Later, when all the greenery develops, this colour disappears from view. But just now in the late winter-spring sun the branches of the tea-leaved willow take on a colour tint that is at once noticed from the car window. On the north side of the road not much red is to be seen yet, but the sunny side is aflame. The tea-leaved willow is one of Estonia’s 21 species of the willow, Salix, family. If some of them are confusingly similar to each other for a beginner in nature, then the tea-leaved one is easy to learn – it is also the most common willow for willow catkins. When buying branches with catkins in the market or picking them oneself you can be fairly sure that you have to do with the tea-leaved willow. It also has nicely large, longish buds, more eye-catching than on most other bushes. It is a plant for rather wet areas.