Willow Catkin Plant Lifecycle Activity

Willow cuttings and their pussy willow catkins are a wonderful way for kids of all ages to explore up close a super interesting plant life cycle.

And in the quick and simple nature study activity I have for you here kids can use willow cuttings to discover all sorts of fascinating stuff about :

1. Pollination
2. Propagation via stem cutting
3. Male & female plants
4. And plant cloning!

I'll explain these in more detail as we go along but there's also a summary at the bottom so you can simply enjoy the activity with younger kids without worrying about fancy terminology.

Do give the nature study a go - it really is a lovely way to bring spring into the classroom or homeschool alongside other plant life cycle activities.

Willow Cuttings

All you need for this nature activity are :

• Willow cuttings
• A few clear glass bottles or jars.

If you don't have a willow in the garden you will almost certainly find willow trees around ponds or streams in a nearby park. The willow cuttings in the photos were simply fallen twigs we found in our local park one morning after a few stormy days.

The catkins may already be out in all their fluffy glory on your cuttings or still covered in their protective black caps. Have a bit of a wander around and try to find cuttings from different trees if you can, (this is important for later).

Cuttings In Water

To set up the activity simply put your cuttings in jars or bottles of water in your nature study area or as we did in the middle of the kitchen table and start watching. This is going to take a few weeks but if you keep checking in your kids are going to see :

1. More fluffy catkins
2. Pollen on some of their catkins (but maybe not on others)
3. Roots growing out of stems
4. Brand new green shoots.

You don't need to freshen the water - in fact you shouldn't - but don't let the water dry out or get too low.

Catkins

The first thing your kids will see is new or fluffier pussy willow catkins. Encourage kids to gently stroke them and feel their softness.

The soft catkin fur is hundreds of little plant hairs - trichomes - that provide thermal insulation for the tiny flowers that are hidden away in the catkin. It is a clever adaptation that lets the willow reproduce when it is still cold outside.

Pollen

Over the weeks slightly thicker stems will start to grow out of the catkin fur. These stems will have yellow or white tips. The yellow tipped stems - as above are found on male catkins and the yellow is the pollen.

Male Catkins

Hidden away behind the soft fur of the male catkin are tiny male flowers. From each of these flowers grow :

• 2 stamen each of which has
• A thin filament or stalk
• Supporting a yellow anther
• Covered in pollen.

Female Catkins

The female catkins will look quite different as they mature with :

• Fatter tube like stems, style
• Open lipped tips, stigma
• Both are a green-white colour (or at least that's how we seem them).

If lucky your kids will get to see both male and female catkins developing BUT only if you found twigs or took cuttings from different trees because willow trees are dioecious, that is either male or female. You don't get male and female catkins on the same tree.

Pollination

OK so we've just discovered that willows are dioecious which means :

1. Pollen from a male tree
2. Must find its way to catkins on a separate female tree.

The willow tree has three assistants in this pollination journey :

1. Insects (entomophily)
2. Birds (ornithophily)
3. Wind (anemophily).

But insects - especially bees - do most of the work. They are very attracted to willow catkins because there is not much other food around in late winter. Both the male and female catkins offer the bees nectar as food.

But there is a problem. How do the bees notice the rather dull green female catkins?There's no bright yellow pollen or pretty petals saying come this way. Well it turns out the female catkins aren't - if you see like a bee - green and white. The style and especially the stigma are stand out ultraviolet!!

(To learn more about bees and colour read my See Like A Bee Nature Hunt).

Pollination however is still a risky business for the willow tree. Those striking ultra-violet stigma are no use if there are no male willow trees nearby. But the willow has another unusual reproductive strategy up its sleeve.

Rooting Twigs

Willows unlike most trees can grow roots from fallen twigs to create new clone trees. And that is exactly what we will see happen in our nature study.

After a week or so roots will start to appear near the bottom of your cuttings and then grow vigorously fast. But don't stop watching there. Your little willow twig is about to grow into a whole new willow tree!!

Cloning Propagation

After the willow twig roots are established, green stems will start to grow quickly out of your willow twig. You now have a brand new willow sapling in your glass jar.

The sapling is a direct clone - a ramet - of its parent - ortet - tree. Both male and female willows can clone themselves and sometimes whole banks of willows along a stream will be single sex clones of one ortet tree.

The willow can clone itself because it is super rich in the hormone Indolebutyric Acid (IBA) which converts branch cells into root cells when a twig breaks.

Now if your kids want to keep watching their willow tree work its magic, it is time to plant it out.

Planting Willow Saplings

Key tips for successfully planting out willow saplings are :

1. Pick a deep pot, min 12 inch deep.
2. Ideally with NO drainage.
3. Fill half pot with potting soil, 20% compost & clay soil if you can.
4. Pour in lots of water to create a very wet muddy slurry.
5. Add a support stick.
6. Plant in sapling by support.
7. Keep in shade.
8. Let the slurry reduce over next 2 weeks but keep very moist / wet.

The sapling should grow very quickly and you could use the support stick to mark its growth rate.

Now most of us sadly do not have suitable gardens for starting a willow clone colony but other plants have cool cloning strategies that are great to explore next with your kids.

More Cloning Plants

The willow's cloning strategy is pretty unique but other plants that clone themselves include :

1. Bulbs
2. Soft stem herbs
3. Other single sex trees.

You can also use the amazing cloning power of willow tea to help other non-cloning plants clone themselves!!

Cloning Bulbs

Almost all bulbs - except e.g. overbred tulips - reproduce primarily via cloning with seed production a slower long term strategy. Two of the fastest cloning bulbs to explore with kids are :

• Garlic
• Chives

Children can split out a garlic head or a clump of chives and then replant as individual bulbs to see them clone again over the season.

Daffodils are another cool cloning bulb to study with kids as if they dissect daffodil flowers they can explore the pollination process that runs parallel to cloning.

Cloning Herbs

Many herbs are like the willow tree expert at cloning themselves via rooted cuttings. The quickest growing to study with kids are soft stemmed :

• Mint
• Oregano
• Basil
• Lemon Balm

Growing mint is a great follow on activity from growing willows. Get kids to use a magnifying glass or camera phone to spot the ready to grow root nubs on the stems that start putting out roots when they hit water.

Other Cloning Trees

Other single sex dioecious trees have fun cloning strategies. They are not suitable for the nature study table but on outdoor adventures look for:

• Aspen & Poplar Suckers
• Holly Hedge
• Walking Yew Trees

Aspen & Poplar Suckers

Aspen and poplar trees grow child clones as suckers from their roots. The famous Pando Aspen in Utah is a single male organism weighing 6,000 tons that has cloned itself via 47,000 connected suckers!!

Holly Hedge

Holly stems like mint have nodes on them which produce roots if they touch the ground. So in winter a branch heavily laden with snow might touch the ground and root expanding a single holly bush into a connected clone hedge. As the clone matures it separates from the parent and can clone itself.

Walking Yew Trees

Ancient Yew trees are famous for walking in old British churchyards and woods. As Yew trees age - we’re talking 500-1,000 years - low growing long branches naturally sag and as they touch soil put down roots from which a new trunk will eventually grow. Eventually the old trunk will rot away and the clone trunk will take over.

Cloning Willow Tea

The Indolebutyric Acid (IBA) rooting hormone is so strong in willows that you can use willow tea to root other cuttings e.g. roses that don't naturally root well on their own.

If you've got roses to spare in your garden - miniature, modern shrub & rambling clone best - this is a brilliant follow on propagation experiment for kids that gets them thinking about the super powered chemicals within plants.

Make Willow Tea

Chop young willow twigs into 1-inch pieces. Soak in boiling water for 24 hours to leach out the IBA and disinfecting Salicylic Acid. Strain liquid.

Take Rose Cuttings

Take a 6-inch cutting from a not too soft, not too woody rose stem. Cut just below a node at 45-degree angle. Remove all but top two leaves.

Soak Rose Cutting

Put rose cutting in jar with 2 inches of willow tea for 24 hours. This gives the cutting a huge hormone hit of IBA.

Plant Rose Cutting

Move the rose cutting into a pot with gritty, well-draining soil. Use remaining willow tea to water it for first week.

So there we go, we now all about the amazing ways in which willow trees can propagate themselves through both pollinating catkins and clever cloning.

To recap on the willow cutting activity just check out the summery below.

And for more nature study ideas check out my other plant lifecycle activities and follow me on Pinterest.

Willow Cutting Summary

1. Collect fallen willow twigs from around local pond or stream.
2. Try to collect twigs from different trees if you possibly can.
3. Put twigs in bottle or jar of water.
4. Stroke soft catkins that protect flowers beneath from winter cold.
5. Watch yellow pollen laden stamen (male catkin) or white stigma tipped stems (female) emerge from the fine catkin fur.
6. Look out for roots emerging from bottom of cuttings.
7. Spot the new green shoots rapidly growing off the upper stem ... you now have a fully cloned willow sapling ready to plant!