Midwestern Native Shrubs and Trees. Charlotte Adelman

      Pussy willow, goat willow (Salix caprea)

      Pussy willow (Salix discolor)

       Native Alternatives:

PUSSY WILLOW. Family: Willow (Salicaceae). Genus: Salix (S. discolor). Height: 6–20 feet. Spread: 4–12 feet. Small tree/shrub. Ornamental Attributes: All willow species have alternate, usually narrow leaves and catkins, male and female on separate trees. Pussy willow’s catkins appear each year in March to April; the pretty, velvety, silvery-gray male catkins fancifully resemble kittens climbing a twig. Female buds and flowers also conspicuously bloom on bare stems before leaves appear. Cultivation: Easy to grow and propagate. Full sun best, wet to moist soil, tolerates drier soil. Zones: 4–8; MEADOW WILLOW (S. petriolaris). Height/Spread: 10 feet. Ornamental Attributes: Low-growing clumped shrub with slender, upraised stems. Cultivation: Full sun, well-drained soil, tolerates many soil types. Zones: 3–8; MISSOURI RIVER WILLOW (S. eriocephala). Height: To 20 feet. Ornamental Attributes: Narrow shrub or small tree with multiple trunks, dark-gray scaly bark, thick lance-shaped leaves, and densely silky catkins. Cultivation: Sun, moist, wet, sandy soil. Zones: 5–9; PRAIRIE WILLOW (S. humilis var. humilis; var. tristis). Height/Spread: 2–12 feet. Ornamental Attributes: Gray-green to blue-green “extremely pretty foliage;”⁵⁴ yellow, green, or purple catkins emerge before the leaves in March to May; wandlike yellow-brown to red stems attractive in winter. Cultivation: Sun, dry to wet soil; tolerates salt and many soil types. Reproduces by reseeding. Zones: 3–7; SANDBAR WILLOW (S. interior). Height: 6–7, sometimes 20 feet. Small tree or thicket. Zones: 2–7; SILKY WILLOW (S. sericea). Height: 6–12 feet. Ornamental Attributes: Nonsuckering willow that “remains always a shrub.”⁵⁵ Pussy-willow-like catkins; silvery leaves turn yellow in fall. Cultivation: Sun to light shade, moist to wet well-drained soil. Note: Endangered in Arkansas. Zones: 4–8. Willow Ornamental Note: “Of inestimable value to the opening season are the willows, for very early they put on their spring dress of silver sheen and thrust out buds of green, or combinations of colour almost too subtle to be accurately described,” wrote Alice Lounsberry in 1901.⁵⁶ Willow Cultivation Note: Native willows tolerate black walnut tree toxicity. Willow Nature Note: “Willows do not spread their pollen via the wind. Instead, they rely on insects for pollination, despite having less than gaudy flowers. What they lack in visual cues, they clearly make up for in olfactory ones, producing large amounts of strongly scented nectar. Pollinators find willows to be superior food sources. Bees and flies are readily drawn to pussy willows in full bloom. One of the advantages of flowering early in spring is that there is very little competition for pollinators. The willows gain the full attention of the many bees and flies that also awaken early in the spring and are desperate for food,” writes Johnny Caryopsis.⁵⁷ A few oligolectic or specialist bees, such as several Andrenid bees, use willow pollen almost exclusively. Pollination ecologists recognize willows as having special value to native and honeybees, meaning they attract them in large numbers. Willows host insects like wood-boring beetles; hungry woodpeckers eat the larvae during the winter. Native willows host 455 species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), productivity exceeded only by oak (Quercus) and plum/cherry (Prunus). “If you have appropriate habitat, by all means use them liberally, for they support several of our showiest butterflies,” writes Douglas Tallamy. If you want beautiful butterflies and moths, plant the species they eat as larvae. If you want mourning cloaks, viceroys, or io moths, plant “any of our many native willows—and you will have them.”⁵⁸ Willows also host green comma (p. 103), white admiral, red-spotted purple (p. 18), eastern tiger swallowtail (p. 18), mourning cloak (p. 62), luna moth, cecropia moth (p. 18), and sphinx moths (p. 108). Also hosted by native willows are Compton tortoiseshell, northern finned prominent, and several hairstreak species such as Acadian hairstreak and striped hairstreak (p. 18). The viceroy butterfly, which resembles the monarch butterfly (p. 124), “is always found close to stands of willow and poplar, which are its larval host plants,” writes David K. Parshall.⁵⁹ Snapping turtles and wood turtles eat fallen willow leaves. When planted along water, willows provide habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms. Nesting birds, including yellow warbler (p. 89), white-throated sparrow (p. 108), black-capped chickadee (p. 322), golden and ruby-crowned kinglets (p. 233), American redstart