Pussy willow

These are the female flowers on a pussy willow or sallow, waiting to catch pollen from a male tree.

The females, as you can see, are a bit like little green hedgehogs doing handstands.

We have male trees at Filnore too, covered in golden pollen, but the flowers are too high on the trees for me to photograph.  Look at my last posting about the chiffchaff for a photo of a male tree.