Willow buds are happening

Observation by Kendra Zamzow

Buds are appearing right as we move into a 2-day cold spell of below zero nights. I wonder if this will kill the buds or affect leaf out. An adjacent willow budded a few weeks ago during a similar cycle of warmth followed by cold, and it appears to be putting some buds out, although on different branches.

Comments by LEO Editors

Blooming willows signal warmer weather and/or the coming of spring and can be indicative of warmer-than-average temperatures in late March and early April, something many members have been observing. LEO Network has received five separate posts of early blooming Willows (genus Salix) since 2014:

January 24th, 2014, in Bethel by Ben Balivet

March 21st of 2015 in Anchorage by Mike Brubaker

March 18th and 22nd of 2016 in Chistochina and Denali by Mike Brubaker and Wilson Justin

March 27th and 30th of 2019 in Kotzebue and Anchorage by Mike Brubaker and Jimmy Evak

March 17th of 2020 in Chistochina by Wilson Justin

In the University of Illinois Ask Extension, Cheryl Laster reported a similar question about early budding and the affect of cold spells:

"We had an odd winter and warm weather seemed to cause it to bud prematurely and then the buds died when the cold came. The tips of the branches are brown and the buds all along the branches are dry and look dead. Most of the branch is still yellow in color."

Richard Hentschel, an Illinois Extension Educator of Horticulture replied:

"Willows can generate new buds along existing stems and twigs. It may be another 3-5 weeks before you see new growth. Not uncommon to have tip dieback annually. if the tree is reasonably healthy and it was the cold that killed the buds, there should be new growth created."

In the post submitted by Jimmy Evak in Kotzebue, Katie Spellman, with UAF International Arctic Research Center, wrote:

Some species of willows are very sensitive to spring temperatures. Here where I grew up in Interior Alaska, Salix alaxensis (feltleaf willow) is the very first flowering plant to pop its buds when the temperatures warm up, even when snow still remains on the ground! In some international warming chamber experiments on tundra willows across the Arctic, the warmer spring temperatures made some species of willow flower earlier, but not all (Jones et al. 2003)... March is early for most parts of Alaska! I also learned that the fuzz on the catkins (those soft white hairs) can actually trap heat, and keep the bud warmer than the air temperature when the sun is not hitting it (Krog 1955)! This is good news, because early flowering puts plants at a greater risk of frost damage. The pussy willow fuzz adds protection from that risk. The bad news is, if the buds have popped open and ptarmigan haven’t come through yet, they lose out on some of the nutrition of the buds (mostly lipids) which are spent by the willow plant developing the catkin. Timing is everything!

According to the temperature graph for Chickaloon from accuweather.com, temperatures dropped from 32 degree low on April 4th to a to a -2 degree low on April 9th. Time will tell if this will affect the buds. If so, there should be new growth an buds as you have observed. For more information on the willow species in Alaska, see the the Alaska Division of Agriculture and USDA Soil Conservation Service publication, Willow Varieties for Alaska. Chyna Williams