Follow up to 100 Species Challenge #44

Sandbar willow again. This time, in basket form. The awesome Kay led a small group of us in willow weaving. She stated that fourteen willow species exist in Iowa, citing weeping and slender willows as well as sandbar willow.

I'll have a details post on this topic at http://juliecache.com  (tag: Crafy Monday). You might want to visit over there because blogger likes to rotate my pictures. WordPress only rotates when I tell it to.

While I've made free-from willow baskets for decoration, I learned to make a practical basket this week. I'm getting close to being done:

What really helped was working on a sandbar. The sand anchors your work without harming it.

This is something my kids can do happily while I'm out caching. Willows can also be used for wreaths (crowns) and mats if baskets are too much.

Willow roots

After reading willows in the _Handbook of Nature Study_, we tried rooting our own. It worked! We cut two twigs -- one piece with the leaf end in the water, one piece with the stem end in the water, and one piece cut from the center of the twig. They all took root! One month of occasional watering in a pot of rocks and some patience was all it took.

Willow Update

Willow study update -- we have weeping willow and the (sandbar) willow from RRNP in a bowl with rocks and water. Waiting for roots. We pointed the twigs every which way to see if the Handbook of Nature Study was right about the plant setting down roots no matter which way it was oriented.

We also identified a wildflower/weed that we've seen for years and never knew the name of -- Shepherd's Purse. I did not have a macro lens at the time, so I'll have to snap a pic later.

100 Species Challenge #44

Specimen #44 Willow

Photo by me, Raccoon River Nature Park

I'm unsure what kind of willow this is. I've looked at enough images to be confused about all of them. My guess is a sand bar willow, and we'll be able to confirm once leaves come out. Maybe. Catkins are the flowers that some trees have. Our paper birch has catkins.

These catkins are larger and looser than the traditional pussy willow at the floral shop ($2/stem). I'm not sure if the different is due to the kind of flower (male vs. female) or kind of willow. The _Handbook of Nature Study_ by Anna Botsford Comstock has a chapter about willows. The kids were very interested as I read it aloud.







Here are the tips of the branches. I had a hard time getting the trees in the viewfinder of my camera with the beach being narrow.

One interesting thing about willows is that they take root from snapped off branches and twigs. This means that fallen willow branches can float downstream until they wash ashore, then grow where they land. We now plan to observe the rooting habits of twigs to confirm our reading -- right side up, right side down, and sideways.