What blooms in December?
Apparently, Arroyo Willows do. I read that the catkins, pictured above, bloom before the leaves do. They are male catkins in the picture.
I went back through my pictures from last year and found these from last spring...
these are female...
these are male...
And look at what the female catkins do in the spring - one source called it "dehiscing".
Alternately, it could be called "bringing joy to children" - don't you think?
Here is some more info on this riparian plant we often see on streamside trails...
The arroyo willow is a riparian woodland regular, thriving along the edges of streams where it enjoys the moist soil it requires. This small tree grows to a maximum of about 10 meters in height, and has alternate, hairy, entire leaves that are lanceolate-elliptic to oblanceolate in shape. In the spring, the catkins appear before the leaves do.
Willows have a talent for propagating from vegetative tissue and thus growing from cuttings. They're so good at it that hormones derived from willows are often used in nurseries to help other plant cuttings take root. Another useful chemical first derived from the willow is Aspirin. Long before that, Native Americans had many uses for this flexible plant. An infusion of willow bark or flowers was used to cure a variety of ailments from fevers to itchiness to diarrhea. The inner bark was made into rope, the shoots used for baskets, and stakes provided structure for thatched houses.
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