The smooth red-brown buds opening like hatches across from the Methodist Church in Provincetown may belong to Salix discolor, the native pussy willow, or they could belong to an introduced lookalike. There are at least 30 species of Salix found in the wild in New England, each with separate male and female specimens, and several feature fuzzy cat-paw catkins.
Differentiating willows may bring on a headache, but chewing on the twigs could help. The bark of the Salix species contains salicin, the analgesic compound that was successfully formulated into aspirin in 1897.
