The Goat willow or Greater Sallow is a tree of wet woodland. hedges and perhaps watercourses, with which grey willow is also associated. It was, with hazel, traditionally used for wattle and daub in timber framed houses (Rackham), at least throughout East Anglia, probably further afield. It probably grew vigorously after coppicing, again together with hazel, so both may have achieved sufficient size to become useful "poles" for the wattle.
Here are some small Sallow buds just breaking out of their close fitting single (or rather, perhaps, united?) outer bud scales:
The large Sallow by the kink in the track to Knight's Park is always worth a look for insects and other wildlife, but its also an interesting tree in its own right. Largely because of its stout twigs, I think it must be Salix caprea ssp. caprea, but the other option is the at-least-equally-common Salix cinerea ssp. oleifolia, or a hybrid between the two species. In theory I think that the twigs of the latter should be redder. I won't be able to be sure until I've gone through more of the annual cycle, and seen the leaves in particular. At the moment its catkins (male I think) are just trying to emerge.
The outer scales that the catkins are in tend to be red or brown, and the stem tends to be a contrasting green, relatively hairless, at least in the situations that I have seen so far. The other buds, which do not contain the catkins I imagine, tend to much smaller, green and adpressed quite closely to the stem:
Others, commonly on the stems above the catkin filled ones, might just be unfilled:
The bark is incredibly complex. Here is a young trunk, with the bark apparently just starting to break up into vertical strips, or possibly just showing some lenticel-like structures in bands. The greeny grey of the bark may be partly algal of course.
The branch junctions are quite strange - perhaps this smaller shaded branch has died or is now being regarded as as redundant, and has stopped growing itself - this needs checking.
Here is an intermediate stem - you can see I think that the deep cracks in the bark are appearing, following the lines of the lenticel-like features if that is what they are. The warm slightly pink colour is still clearly visible but I don't know if this is a general characterisatic of Sallow.
Here is a close-up of one of the older main stems. The bark is now riven by earthquake-like fissures, running deep with orange-reddish hints to the depths of the cracks, contrasting with the grey-green of the woody bark, and the slightly warm pinky brown of the remaining outer surface in which you can still see the lenticel-like structures seen in the picture of the younger bark above. Presumably respiration might now take place to some extent at the depths of the cracks
Here is a tree along the gravelled drive to the house in the wood. Again I think it must clearly be a Sallow, because of the breaking up of the surface bark into its corky canyons, the pinkish tinge to the remaining surface bark, and the remaining patterns of diamond shaped lenticel-like structures, seen most clearly on the younger stems behind:
Here are some small Sallow buds just breaking out of their close fitting single (or rather, perhaps, united?) outer bud scales:
The large Sallow by the kink in the track to Knight's Park is always worth a look for insects and other wildlife, but its also an interesting tree in its own right. Largely because of its stout twigs, I think it must be Salix caprea ssp. caprea, but the other option is the at-least-equally-common Salix cinerea ssp. oleifolia, or a hybrid between the two species. In theory I think that the twigs of the latter should be redder. I won't be able to be sure until I've gone through more of the annual cycle, and seen the leaves in particular. At the moment its catkins (male I think) are just trying to emerge.
The outer scales that the catkins are in tend to be red or brown, and the stem tends to be a contrasting green, relatively hairless, at least in the situations that I have seen so far. The other buds, which do not contain the catkins I imagine, tend to much smaller, green and adpressed quite closely to the stem:
Others, commonly on the stems above the catkin filled ones, might just be unfilled:
The bark is incredibly complex. Here is a young trunk, with the bark apparently just starting to break up into vertical strips, or possibly just showing some lenticel-like structures in bands. The greeny grey of the bark may be partly algal of course.
The branch junctions are quite strange - perhaps this smaller shaded branch has died or is now being regarded as as redundant, and has stopped growing itself - this needs checking.
Here is a close-up of one of the older main stems. The bark is now riven by earthquake-like fissures, running deep with orange-reddish hints to the depths of the cracks, contrasting with the grey-green of the woody bark, and the slightly warm pinky brown of the remaining outer surface in which you can still see the lenticel-like structures seen in the picture of the younger bark above. Presumably respiration might now take place to some extent at the depths of the cracks
Here is a tree along the gravelled drive to the house in the wood. Again I think it must clearly be a Sallow, because of the breaking up of the surface bark into its corky canyons, the pinkish tinge to the remaining surface bark, and the remaining patterns of diamond shaped lenticel-like structures, seen most clearly on the younger stems behind:
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