Salix caprea (Pussy Willow)

Salix caprea (Pussy Willow) is a rounded large shrub or small deciduous tree boasting broadly elliptic dark green leaves adorned with a felty coating of fine gray hairs underneath. Before the foliage emerges in late winter or early spring, male trees produce a showy display of fat, silky, pinkish gray catkins, 1-2 in. long (2-5 cm), which become yellow when ripe with pollen. Female trees produce longer green catkins. This willow is among the first flowering plants in the spring, the catkins providing a high quantity of pollen and nectar as a food source, to bees, insects or birds. Pussy Willow can be used as a windbreak and hedge. In early spring, its flowering branches are in high demand.

Willows (Salix species) are important larval host plants for several butterflies and moths. This species supports Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) caterpillars.

• Grows up to 12-25 ft. tall (3-8 m) and 12-15 ft. wide (3-5 m). May be cut to the ground every 3-5 years to keep a smaller shrub size.
• Performs best in full sun in moderately fertile, medium to wet, well-drained soils. Thrives in moist soils, but tolerates somewhat drier soils better than most other willows.
• Easy to grow, easy to care for and deer tolerant. Keep an eye out for aphids, caterpillars, leaf beetles, sawflies, willow anthracnose diseases and a rust.
• Propagate by softwood or hardwood cuttings.
• Prune as needed in late winter to early spring.
• Native from Europe to northeastern Asia.