The black willow hardly ceases to shed its down when it looks yellowish.

August 12 

August 12, 2020
8:14 PM

The river-bank is past height.

The button bush is not common now, though the clethra is in prime.

The black willow hardly ceases to shed its down when it looks yellowish.

Setaria glauca, some days.

Elymus Virginicus, some days.

Andropogon furcatus (in meadow); how long? Probably before scoparius.

Zizania several days. 

AUGUST 12, 2017
5:49 PM

River at 5 P. M. three and three quarters inches below summer level.

Panicum glabrum (not sanguinale? — our common); how long? The upper glume equals the flower, yet it has many spikes. 


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 12, 1860



The clethra is in prime. See August 19, 1851 ("The fragrance of the clethra fills the air by water sides.")


The black willow hardly ceases to shed its down. See August 2, 1860 ("The black willow down is even yet still seen here and there on the water. ") See also  A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Propogation of the Black Willow.

Zizania several days. See August 14, 1859 ("The zizania now makes quite a show along the river. "); August 18, 1854 ("The zizania on the north side of the river near the Holt, or meadow watering-place, is very conspicuous and abundant.")

Panicum sanguinale — our common. See September 4, 1858 ("P. sanguinale, crab grass, finger grass, or purple panic grass.")

The black willow down.

June 26. 

Sunday. P. M. — Up Assabet. 

The black willow down is now quite conspicuous on the trees, giving them a parti-colored or spotted white and green look, quite interesting, like a fruit. It also rests on the water by the sides of the stream, where caught by alders, etc., in narrow crescents ten and five feet long, at right angles with the bank, so thick and white as to remind me of a dense mass of hoar-frost crystals.

H. D. Thoreau,  Journal, June 26, 1859

The black willow down is now quite conspicuous. See March 11, 1861 ("The seed of the willow is exceedingly minute, . . .- and is surrounded at base by a tuft of cotton - like hairs about one fourth of an inch long rising around and above it, forming a kind of parachute. These render it the most buoyant of the seeds of any of our trees, and it is borne the furthest horizontally with the least wind. . . . Each of the numerous little pods, more or less ovate and beaked, which form the fertile catkin is closely packed with down and seeds. At maturity these pods open their beaks, which curve back, and gradually discharge their burden like the milkweed."); June 15, 1854 ("Black willow is now gone to seed, and its down covers the water, white amid the weeds."); June 27, 1860 ("To-day it is cool and clear and quite windy, and the black willow down is now washed up and collected against the alders and weeds, and the river looking more sparkling."); July 9, 1857 ("There is now but little black willow down left on the trees.")