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03-05-2005, 10:36 PM

In article . com,
writes
My sister asked me what was the name of the tree that makes a lot of
fluff. I said "That will be the 'fluffy tree'" and then I said that
some types of poplar do this.

In a letter she wrote that she had found out what the fluffy tree was,
and it is the aspen. I did a bit of research on the web and the aspen -
being a type of poplar - might produce some fluff, but it is the black
poplar (and only the female) that produces lots of it.

However, a couple of days ago I was walking along a road and there was
a lot of fluff blowing along. I traced it to its source. It was a tree
that did not look like a poplar. The leaves did not look like poplar
leaves and its general shape was not that of the poplar. It had catkins
hanging down from which fluff came. The tree looked more like an apple
than anything else but could not have been.

Please can you identify this tree. My sister regards me as an authority
on plants and I want to maintain the illusion.

Andy.

Willows, as well as poplars, produce "fluff". Possibly one of the
sallows (goat willow etc).
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley