Yet more catkins - but where is the frog spawn?

 There is still no frog spawn in my pond, though there was at this time in previous years, so I thought I would check out Loch Imrich and the marshy spot up Glen Banchor where there is usually lots of spawn.  None seen at all...

Going through the car park opposite the Balavil Hotel, I spotted some red catkins on the ground. They were rather like floppy caterpillars, and had some very sticky leaf buds at the end which had a strong smell. They smelled slightly sweet yet also a bit unpleasant.

Catkins and sticky leaves

The tree they fell from is a Western Balsam Poplar (Populus trichocarpa) which is native to Western North America but has been planted at the corner of the Balavil car park. If you walk past it later in the spring when the leaves are out, you you will notice the sweetish smell.

Western Balsam Poplar

This variety of tree is "dioecious" which means that the trees are either male or female and produce either catkins (if male) or flowers (if female). This tree must be male as it produces catkins, so sadly there will be no seeds. The catkins are rather beautiful in close up, being made up of lots of separate packets of pollen. UPDATE- see end of post to see what happened the next day!

 The Larch also produces red growths, but this time it is the female flowers that have the flashy ruby colour, and when pollinated will produce the cones.

Female Larch flower

The red colour does not last, but is easy to spot before the leaves come out. The Larch is one of the few cone bearing trees that lose their leaves in the winter. The leaf buds in the spring look like little green shaving brushes.

The photo above shows the female flowers having lost their red colour and starting to resemble the cones they will become. The male flowers are underneath.

This twig has last year's cones at the top

Most of the tall trees around Loch Imrich are larches so now is a good time to take a walk around and see if you can find the red flowers before they lose their colour.

UPDATE. I did this post on Saturday evening and when I came down on Sunday morning, the poplar catkin was surrounded by a pile of powdery pollen! So back to the microscope to see what was happening... (though this is actually easier with a x10 hand lens as you get a better 3D view)

The centre of the catkin goes down the middle of the photo and sticking out at right angles on each side  is a green-yellow plate or platform. The red bundles are supsended below the platform on tiny white stalks.

Each of the red bundles (probably the correct term is anthers) then splits and releases its pollen, seen as yellow grains.  There is a lot of it, as even from my sample there was a little heap of yellow powder around the catkin. Why so much? Well, this tree relies on the wind, rather than insects, to carry the pollen grains far and wide in the hope of landing upon a female flower of the same species. Unfortunately, this pollen may be doomed as there are no female Western Balsam Poplar trees anywhere in Newtonmore. Indeed, the nearest trees are recorded in Kincraig and I don't know whether they are male or female. I did go and have a look but they are still bare.

The map is from the BSBI database and each red square shows where a Western Balsam Poplar has been recorded.

Recorded distribution of Western Balsam Poplar 

Signs of Spring

 We have been having some beautiful clear cold days recently and I went for a walk around Strone, which is a ridge above Newtonmore, with some great views.

Although there is not much in flower yet, the trees are showing signs of life with catkins. These are the male pollen producing flowers, and their pollen gets blown about by the wind to (hopefully) land on a female flower and fertilise it so the tree can produce seed.  There were plenty of Alders growing in the ditches, and they had catkins next to the old cones that produce the seeds. 

Alder catkins and last year's cones

 I realised that I had not really taken much notice of catkins before and although the Alder was easy to identify because of the cones, I did not know what this tree was at first, though it definitely had the brightest yellow catkins.

Thinking about it, I could rule out a few trees - not birch, as although it has catkins, they are not out yet and the bark and maroon new twigs are easy to recognise.  Not Rowan as that has flowers that are insect pollinated so it does not have catkins... In fact , it was Hazel - not a tree I see much of round here and this was in a small plantation. The female flowers are tiny with red stigmas sticking out so I will have to look more closely next time and get a photo.

There was also a willow which was badly damaged in the recent storms.

This had the grey furry pussy willow catkins but too high up to get a good photo, so I decided to try alongside Loch Imrich as there are several willows that grow on the banks. Willows are another group of trees that like water. I found no catkins but several large larches had blown over or snapped.

The blown over root plate of a larch, with my walking poles for scale.

Still in search of pussy willow, I went to The Gravels, some scrub land between two housing areas, as I knew there was a big willow there. Success!

The catkins start off with a lovely grey furry coat, hence pussy willow, but later they will turn yellow when the pollen bearing stamens burst out. Pussy willow is also known as Goat Willow or Salix caprea.

As an added bonus, I also found some Leucojum or Snowflakes which are a little like Snowdrops at first glance. They probably grew from someone dumping garden waste.

On a sadder note, there was another sign of Spring - two squashed frogs on their way to the Loch drawn by the urge to spawn...

I have not seen any frogspawn yet, but it can't be long before it appears.