Flora of New Zealand Series

pussy willow

Erect shrub or small tree 3- c. 12 m high; bark smooth or nearly so. Shoots grey or greenish, hairy for c. 2 years, not brittle, smooth with few short striations below the bark. Buds shining, deep brown, glabrous or somewhat hairy. Petiole mostly 5-10 mm long. Lamina 4-10 × 2.5-5.5 cm, usually broad-elliptic to elliptic-obovate, not bitter to taste, densely clothed in soft grey hairs beneath at first, the hairs much sparser at maturity, becoming nearly glabrous above except for persistently hairy midrib; margins undulate, sparingly glandular-serrulate; angle between midrib and veins > 45°; apex usually ± rounded, occasionally acute. Stipules small, < 5 mm long, broader than long. Catkins ♂, produced in abundance before lvs, 2-3-(3.5) cm long, ± erect, broad-oblong; rachis villous. Bracts 2-2.5 mm long, lanceolate-ovate to rhombic-ovate, black in upper 1/2, with dense silky tuft of hairs; apex obtuse to rounded. Gland 1, 0.5-0.7 mm long, rectangular, sometimes broadly so. Stamens 2-(3); filaments hairy towards base.

N.; S.: widespread.

Origin unknown 1988

Particularly moist or low-lying ground in and around settlements.

FL Aug-Oct.

Pussy willow is widely and commonly planted as an ornamental, and for shelter belts, especially in Hawke's Bay. Like most willows it is propagated very easily and thus it is not surprising that single clones are widely disseminated in cultivation. Probably many of the spontaneous seedlings along street gutters in E. South Id towns and cities are S. × reichardtii, although not necessarily the ♂ plant described above. Indeed some of them will presumably be ♀. The common name pussy willow is especially applied to ♂ plants because of their abundance of large, bright yellow catkins in early spring. S. × reichardtii is a hybrid between S. caprea and S. cinerea; whether it has backcrossed with ♀ S. cinerea in places where the 2 are in close proximity is not known, but this is likely. Pussy willow is often mistakenly called S. discolor in N.Z.

S. × reichardtii has often been confused with S. caprea in N.Z., but the latter is not known to be wild here. S. caprea differs as follows: shoots dark, grey-green or purple, glabrous by the second year, lacking striations beneath the bark; lvs grey and persistently hairy beneath; catkins of similar size and shape, but bracts and gland more variable; anthers less golden.