Nature Walk: Black Willow Catkins

We give little thought to the delicate flowers of trees unless they are ornamentals such as dogwoods, flowering crabapples or redbuds, to name a few. We scarcely notice the flowers of maples, elms or river bottom trees like black willows. These flowers are called catkins and, in the case of the black willow, male and female flowers are borne on different trees, thus the tree is termed dioecious. Here we see staminate or male catkins that have fallen into a prairie pond along with new leaves.

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