This stem is from a shrubby willow I started from a cutting a couple of years ago. It’s a 6-foot-tall and -wide specimen now, with at least a dozen of the terminal stems flattened and ‘hyper-budded’ like this. Weird.
I asked one of our woody plant people and she said it’s a genetic thing, and that they’re used in dried flower arrangements. I’d also heard from another source that this might also be triggered by stress. It’s along the road and gets a lot of salt, but I don’t know if that would count.
I do plan to see what happens in spring when all those buds break, and also want to see what happens when I root a plant from one of these stems. I’ll keep you posted.
Update: I saw a picture on another blog. Forget the environmental cause. It’s Japanese fantail willow (Salix sachalinensis).
Willow and Solidago stem arrangement.
We both garden in heavy, wet clay. And I see we grow some of the same things. I have three Salix sachalinensis just coming into their third year. The flattened branches are just beginning to show. I’ve read that hard pruning causes more distortion of the branches.