SALIX L. - WILLOW
Scientific Description:
Deciduous trees and shrubs, rarely prostrate shrublets. Buds with a single outer scale. Leaves alternate (rarely opposite), linear to obovate, entire or minutely glandular-dentate, rarely subserrate. Petiole short or absent. Flowers entomophilous, catkins appearing before or with leaves, shortly elliptic or ovoid to elongate-cylindrical, erect or pendent, stalked or sessile; each flower with 1 or 2 nectaries, subtended by an entire bract. Stamens 2, 3 or 5 or more, occasionally to 10; filaments free or partly or wholly united. Ovary usually distinctly stalked, style short with branched stigma. Capsule 2-valved, glabrous or hairy. Seeds small, numerous, comose.
Reference:
Skvortsov AK & Edmondson JR (1982). Salix L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 7: 694.
Public Description:
Salix, commonly known as “willow”, “sallow” or “osier”, is deciduous trees and shrubs, and is found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. There are approximately 552 species in the world and 38 species (46 taxa) in Türkiye. The willows have plenty of watery, flexible, soft and tough wood. Their roots are durable and extremely skilled at reaching the water. In ancient texts from the Assyrian, Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations, it was mentioned that the leaves and barks of the willow tree were used as analgesic and antipyretic. In ancient Greece, in the fifth century BC, Doctor Hippocrates wrote the medical characteristics of the willow. The main ingredients of Aspirin, "salicin and methyl salicylate" are derived from members of this genus. These properties are the strongest in the inner bark of the trees, but they are also present in the leaves. Like aspirin, the willow family is used in the treatment of fever, headache, arthritis and inflammatory conditions, especially in the urinary tract. Willow wood is widely used in making furniture and wooden tools. In addition, baskets, fish traps, wattle fences and wattle and daub house walls, were often woven from osiers or withies. Willow trees are also used for activities such as biological filtration of wetlands, ecological wastewater treatment systems, soil remediation, landscaping and soil erosion control.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2016) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow/,Accessed date: 05.08.2016.
Anonymous 2 (2016) https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/search/?q=salix/,Accessed date: 05.08.2016
Anonymous 3 (2016) http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Salicaceae/Salix/ /,Accessed date: 05.08.2016
Mataracı T (2012) Salix L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 836–839.
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