Goat Willow

Salix caprea

• Also know as Pussy Willow and Great Sallow
• This willow is easily identifiable in the spring time by great big catkins covered in yellow pollen at their tips.
• Their seed heads can then be seen creating “snow” as tiny little white clumps float along in the gentlest of breezes, whist still on the tree they were said to look like cats paws hence the name pussy willow.
• This seed dispersal mechanism – small light seeds with very little energy packaged inside them – leads to a very high failure rate. However it also allows them to travel far and wide, finding new lands that haven’t got the competition of other trees. This makes them a pioneer species like the silver birch and you will often find young willows growing on scrub land.
• Goat Willow is no different to other willows in its tendency to like having wet feet, and it is more prolific in damper areas.
• In Chaldon, on top of a predominantly chalk hillside it is quite rare, and usually only found in gardens or planted hedges. In Gilestone Wood however, in the Usk Valley it is everywhere.
• Willow can be coppiced, cut down to the base and successfully regrow with lots of stems and lots of vigour. Like the Hazel we’ve looked at before. In fact you often find willow trees that have done this naturally. They’ve grown out on multiple stems, which have eventually fallen apart and created a giant dead spider-like splat on the ground, but the base has often put out lots of new growth.
• Willows are also very good at self-rooting. If you put a 1ft stake of willow into the ground it will often root and grow into a healthy tree.
• Lots of live sculptures make use of this characteristic of the willow.
• Goat Willow is our most common wild willow, there are many that are native to Britain. Unfortunately Goat Willow is not one of the better willows for basket making.