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Various animals browse the foliage [14] or shelter amongst the plants. Beavers use willows to build dams. [12] The trees are used as food by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera, such as the mourning cloak butterfly. [15] Ants, such as wood ants, are common on willows inhabited by aphids, coming to collect aphid honeydew, as sometimes do ...
Flowers. Salix nigra is a medium-sized deciduous tree, the largest North American species of willow, growing to 10–30 m (35–100 ft) tall, exceptionally up to 45 m (148 ft), with a trunk 50–80 centimeters (20–30 in) diameter.
The shoots in the typical species are grey-brown to green-brown. The leaves are paler than most other willows because they are covered with very fine, silky white hairs, in particular on the underside; they are 5–10 cm long and 0.5–1.5 cm wide. The flowers are produced in catkins in early spring and are pollinated by insects.
American pussy willow (Salix discolor), native to northern North America. Before the male catkins of these species come into full flower they are covered in fine, greyish fur, leading to a fancied likeness to tiny cats, also known as “pussies”. The catkins appear before the leaves, and are one of the earliest signs of spring.
The leaves are 3–12 cm long and from 2–8 cm wide, broader than most other willows. The flowers are soft silky, and silvery 3-7-cm-long catkins are produced in early spring before the new leaves appear; the male and female catkins are on different plants .
This tree is mostly deciduous during the winter, but can start growing back leaves early during warm snaps in the winter. Yellow flowers grow in drooping catkins. In female red willows, the catkins turn into tufts of cottony seeds, which are windborn, often in large quantities, for 2-3 weeks in the spring. [4] Flowering Time: Dec--Jun [5]
The flowers are yellow catkins, 3–8 cm (1 + 1 ⁄ 4 – 3 + 1 ⁄ 4 in) long, produced in the spring with the leaves. The reddish-yellow fruit matures in late spring or early summer, and the individual capsules are 4–6 millimetres (3 ⁄ 16 – 1 ⁄ 4 in) long. [5] [6] The peachleaf willow grows very quickly, but is short-lived.
It flowers after leafing. The bark is rough, with deep, vertical fissures and the young shoots leaves are silky. The leaves are lance-like, or ovate-lancelike, 8–15 cm long, with minutely and regularly toothed margins. The male sweet scented catkins are 5–10 cm long, and are borne on leafy branchlets. The female catkins are 8–12 cm long.