If you had trouble accessing the site yesterday, it was because of some flakiness in the connection between the university and the rest of the world that affected both incoming and outgoing communications. I hope you weren't inconvenienced too much.

I doubt this photograph would win any awards for technical composition. However, I think the subject is a good companion to yesterday's image with its similar shapes and patterns, so that's why it's posted. I should mention (full disclosure!) that I cloned out a distracting branch with catkins in the lower left.

Black willow or black pussy willow is a dark-bracted variant of rosegold pussy willow, Salix gracilistyla. The species is native to east Asia, but this particular cultivar has its origins in the gardens of Japan. To read more, Paghat has an excellent account about it: Salix gracilistyla 'Melanostachys'. You'll note that on her site (and in many other places), Salix gracilistyla var. melanostachys is used; I'm speculating, but I suspect that when this plant was first described by scientists, its garden origin was not known and so was thought to be a naturally-occurring variety (hence var. melanostachys). When it was determined to be of cultivated origin, the scientific name could no longer apply, hence the transformation to a cultivar name, 'Melanostachys'.

In other news, I submitted the BPotD entry on Taxodium distichum to the latest issue of the Tangled Bank (#46). If you'd like to read some of the best science weblog writing on the web or discover other science-themed weblogs, the Tangled Bank is for you!

Natural history resource link: I had reason to visit the web site of the Natural History Museum in London, England yesterday, and was quite impressed – much to explore (don't miss the “Nature Online” section) and it is presented crisply.