A drooping spike of small flowers characteristic of some deciduous trees Male catkins produce pollen; female catkins are pollinated and then develop into fruiting catkins which bear seeds A spike-like flower cluster that bears scaly bracts and petal-less, unisexual flowers
A cluster of long male flowers without petals (typical of the oaks, hickories, walnuts, birches, and other trees) that hangs from a twig in spring and serves to pollinate the separate female flowers
An ament; a species of inflorescence, consisting of a slender axis with many unisexual apetalous flowers along its sides, as in the willow and poplar, and (as to the staminate flowers) in the chestnut, oak, hickory, etc
A catkin is a long, thin, soft flower that hangs on some trees, for example birch trees and hazel trees. a long soft flower that hangs in groups from the branches of trees such as the willow (Early katteken ; because it looks like a cat's tail). Elongated cluster of single-sex flowers bearing scaly bracts and usually lacking petals. Many trees bear catkins, including willows, birches, and oaks. Wind carries pollen from male to female catkins or from male catkins to female flowers that take a different form (e.g., in spikes)