cat·kin /ˈkatkən/, noun:
1. a long cluster of small flowers hanging from the branches of trees (particularly deciduous, e.g., hazel, willow or birch) in the spring
But suppose the endlessly dead were to wake in us some emblem:
they might point to the catkins hanging from the empty hazel trees, or direct us to the rain descending on black earth in early spring. – And we, who always think of happiness rising, would feel the emotion that almost baffles us when a happy thing falls. Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875 – 1926