Red Willow

It's funny how your eyes become accustomed to a foreign landscape so quickly as if you have seen it all your life.  You will wave a mental hand airily as if to say "Oh those old things" when in fact they are new to your visual library.

Today as I am getting ready to drive back to Ohio-ucky from DC, it occurred to me that I hadn't seen any red willow* on this trip as if I was used to seeing them everywhere when, in fact, the first time I remember seeing them is in Seattle.  There they grew in great swaths.  Their bright red color against the emerald backdrop more noticeable for the contrast.  Perhaps more visible since most trees and shrubs there had yet to leaf out.

Either there are none here,  or there are just not great stands of them here such that there is no visual red river for my eyes to follow.  There are willows growing in the creek beds and along the bottoms.  My eyes can easily distinguish their yellow-y stems congregated like the red willow stands in WA.  I suspect we just don't have them.  And now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing any yellow willow in the NW, just the red.  So maybe they are an either/or situation?

Any botanists out there who know, feel free to leave a comment.



*I have no idea what these really are, but they are short, whippy shrubs with carmine red stems.  Duz told me that they are also found in MT where people cut them to make wreaths and such.