Catkin

[Sarah]

An ament; a species of inflorescence, consisting of a slenderaxis with many unisexual apetalous flowers along its sides, as in thewillow and poplar, and (as to the staminate flowers) in the chestnut,oak, hickory, etc.-- so called from its resemblance to a cat's tail. See Illust. ofAment.

[Sarah]

Created by innovatively lazy people, catkins are the result of eating something messy and realizing that you don’t have a napkin nearby, but you do have a cat.

[Vania]

a group of small flowers hanging like short pieces of string from the branches of particular trees in the spring:

[Mark Zuckerberg]

A downy, hanging flowering spike of trees such as willow and hazel, pollinated by the wind.

[Julian]

A flowering spike of trees such as willow and hazel. Catkins are typically downy, pendulous, composed of flowers of a single sex, and wind-pollinated.