Our most faithful readers know about the little swamp which we maintain at weedom for the spring peepers and other frogs that presage the coming of Spring.
There was a neighbor hereabouts who abused their horses, did not feed them. The horses ate all the bark off the willow trees; I thought the willows were done for. Several years later, you'd never know they had been chewed down so brutally. Willows have almost magical regenerative powers!
They don’t follow the usual rules, that’s for sure. Even if the entire top of the tree would die off, a branch would come up from the base, or a root somewhere.
My guess from grazing a lot of ag literature is that a lot of known hybridization has been helped along by horticultural interests. The seeds of these dioecious trees have somewhat stringent requirements, and the willows can propagate naturally from suckers and branches that hit the ground.
There was a neighbor hereabouts who abused their horses, did not feed them. The horses ate all the bark off the willow trees; I thought the willows were done for. Several years later, you'd never know they had been chewed down so brutally. Willows have almost magical regenerative powers!
They don’t follow the usual rules, that’s for sure. Even if the entire top of the tree would die off, a branch would come up from the base, or a root somewhere.
I didn’t realize they hybridized like that.
My guess from grazing a lot of ag literature is that a lot of known hybridization has been helped along by horticultural interests. The seeds of these dioecious trees have somewhat stringent requirements, and the willows can propagate naturally from suckers and branches that hit the ground.