Tree #3 Willow

Today I went out looking for any fall color…it’s hard to come by in an evergreen forest!  There is a big leaf Maple and altho it’s a beautiful golden color, it’s not red.   I planted a smaller maple but it’s not red either.  The alders turn yellow also..


This is a willow… there are more than 300 species worldwide, mostly in the northern hemisphere so I was happy to read that exact identification is very difficult, and they often hybridize naturally, creating more confusion.    So …I’m just calling this a (non weeping) willow that likes to grow near the shore in moist soil.  I like it at the top of our wharf as it’s a nice entry screen (except in winter when it does lose it’s leaves.) this is fairly high tide but you can see that it does hang over the salt water…. they have catkins which often appear early february even before the leaves.  Natives used the bark for making rope and the branches for baskets.  the bark was also used medicinally (it contains salicin, the chemical from which aspiren was first synthesized.)  It hasn’t all changed color yet as we’ve not had really cold weather but I thought the scene needed some halloween decor and had fun playing a bit, adding some, thanks to the grandchildren.