Showing off for spring

These are male willow catkins, spoted on a walk and snapped with my mobile phone. I cannot decide whether the tree is Salix caprea or Salix cinerea. If anyone knows, do please tell me.

 

There are a lot of willows in this part of Cheshire. The water retentive properties of Cheshire's clay soil seem to suit them. The native willows are unassuming in appearance but noteworthy for many reasons. They bear beautiful flowers very early in the spring, so they are great for hungry insects. Willows have given us the very useful drug aspirin which is anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic and possibly useful in cancer prevention. They are dioecious, which is a fancy way of saying that some plants are male and some are female. And the tree features in the mythology of many countries. So three cheers for the willow!

Done