Willow
Willows are a group of trees and shrubs which may be called sallows or osiers. Their Latin name is Salix.
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| Weeping Willow | |
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| Genus: | Salix L.
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About 350. | |
Willows have many differences in size and type of growth, but are very much alike in other respects. There are about 350 species of this plant, usually found on moist soils in cooler zones in the Northern Hemisphere. Many hybrids are known, both naturally occurring and in cultivation, because willows are very fertile.
Willows have watery bark sap, charged with salicylic acid (defence against herbivory). They have soft, usually pliant (bendy), tough wood, slender branches, and large, fibrous, often stoloniferous roots. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and are hard to kill. Roots readily sprout from aerial parts of the plant.
Willows are dioecious, with male and female flowers appearing as catkins on separate plants. The catkins are produced early in the spring, often before the leaves.
Pictures
Weeping Willow in Auckland, New Zealand
Salix herbacea, Dwarf Willow, Sweden
Willow catkin
(Salix discolor)
Young male catkin
Willow Media
At the base of the petiole a pair of stipules form. These may fall in spring, or last for much of the summer or even for more than one year (marcescence).
Pollard willow and woodpile in the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen, Ghent, Belgium
Berlin Britzer Garten pollarded willow tree in the spring of March 2018
Weeping willow, an example of a hybrid between two types of willow
Cricket bats are traditionally made from willow wood.
Male catkin of Salix cinerea with bee
Willow tree in spring, England
Willow tree with woodbine honeysuckle
Art installation "Sandworm" in the Wenduine Dunes, Belgium, made entirely out of willow
Other websites
- Salix alba at plants for a future
- Salix purpurea at plants for a future
- 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
- Salix caroliniana images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu Archived 2012-05-02 at the Wayback Machine
- Salix nigra images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu Archived 2012-05-02 at the Wayback Machine
- Salix humboldtiana or Chilean willow images