Sallows, or Goat (Salix caprea) and Grey (Salix cinerea) Willows, may have been some of the first trees to invade the British Isles following the end of the last glaciation between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago, together with birch and alder. Both species are certainly well known as natives from consistent pollen evidence before the beginning of the Atlantic Period, about 6,200 years ago (Rackham).
This willow found by the Medway near East Peckham has a very furry (shortly pubescent, CTW) stem, as I would hope from Salix cinerea, but its bud scales are still relatively hairless and broadly coracle-shaped, as in the trees I have been calling S. caprea ssp caprea. The idea of a pubescent twig is fairly well spread throughout the literature but is most explicitly stated to be for the duration of the first year by the Collins Tree Guide. There are also more obvious black-tipped lower scales near the bottom of the catkin, as mentioned in CTW characteristically found in this subsection of the genus. However I wonder if in fact it is a hybrid between the two species, as I would hope, making it Salix x reichardtii or perhaps its just a Salix caprea which is more pubescent in the twig.
In a closer view, you can see the three stubby vein scars in the leaf scar, but no "auricle" scars - if that is what they are.
This below is another tree, and this time the buds as well as the twigs are pubescent. In this case, the buds do look ovoid, as described in CTW, making this tree perhaps much more likely to be pure Salix cinerea. however this looks NOTHING like the illustration in the AIDGAP guide, which I'm going to say is absolutely misleading, also in describing the buds as RED:
Waiting for the catkins to open with anthers, which should be red-tipped when young, its worth noting the grey-black of the top of the silvery catkins as the outer scale falls off. This may be tied up with the black tips of the male catkin scales of Salix cinerea mentioned in Clapham, Tutin and Warburg, 1981. Again however I would call this shoot greenish rather than brown, but this may depend on whether this twig came from a shaded part of the canopy or not.
This willow found by the Medway near East Peckham has a very furry (shortly pubescent, CTW) stem, as I would hope from Salix cinerea, but its bud scales are still relatively hairless and broadly coracle-shaped, as in the trees I have been calling S. caprea ssp caprea. The idea of a pubescent twig is fairly well spread throughout the literature but is most explicitly stated to be for the duration of the first year by the Collins Tree Guide. There are also more obvious black-tipped lower scales near the bottom of the catkin, as mentioned in CTW characteristically found in this subsection of the genus. However I wonder if in fact it is a hybrid between the two species, as I would hope, making it Salix x reichardtii or perhaps its just a Salix caprea which is more pubescent in the twig.
In a closer view, you can see the three stubby vein scars in the leaf scar, but no "auricle" scars - if that is what they are.
This below is another tree, and this time the buds as well as the twigs are pubescent. In this case, the buds do look ovoid, as described in CTW, making this tree perhaps much more likely to be pure Salix cinerea. however this looks NOTHING like the illustration in the AIDGAP guide, which I'm going to say is absolutely misleading, also in describing the buds as RED:
Waiting for the catkins to open with anthers, which should be red-tipped when young, its worth noting the grey-black of the top of the silvery catkins as the outer scale falls off. This may be tied up with the black tips of the male catkin scales of Salix cinerea mentioned in Clapham, Tutin and Warburg, 1981. Again however I would call this shoot greenish rather than brown, but this may depend on whether this twig came from a shaded part of the canopy or not.
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