On a rainy day last week, several folks from our forests team were out harvesting live stakes. During our search along the water’s edge for suitable stems to cut from we were excited to find several clusters of shrub willows, one of which was poppin’ and inspired this piece.

When thinking about willows (plants of the genus Salix), the non-native Weeping Willow (Salix babylonica) may be the first species that comes to mind for most folks. The Black Willow (Salix nigra) is the most prominent native representative of the genus on our landscape in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, a fast growing tree found often in the wetter soils along waterways (and one of our favorites for both seedling plantings and livestaking projects).

However, there are a plethora of other willows native to our region, taking a smaller, shrubbier form. These willows (including the sandbar willow or coyote willow (Salix exigua) and pussy willow (Salix discolor) among others) share the hardy, wet loving nature of the black willow. They also (like other willows) demonstrate adventitious rooting, meaning roots will grow from non-root tissue such as stems. This makes these willows well adapted to high disturbance riparian environments where branches may break off and establish downstream, as well as excellent candidates for live staking!

So… what’s poppin’? In short, I don’t exactly know. Identification among shrub willows is notoriously challenging (I am given to understand that microscopes can be useful), and complicated further by hybridization and (in this case) a lack of leaves. It is common practice to leave it at Salix sp. (species) when looking at shrub willows. However, even given a broader knowledge base, it was an exciting find, and those livestakes promise to be excellent additions to a riparian ecosystem this spring.

Keep an eye out this month as spring weather comes along, there should be no shortage of plants poppin’. If you see something blooming, leafing out, ripening, or otherwise changing in your woods, send us photos (forestsforthebay@gmail.com) to include in next month’s Forests for the Bay newsletter for more phenological fun!