Salix albaL. White willow

Salix albaL. - White willow

Scientific Description:

Tall tree to 30 m; bark deeply fissured, greyish. Twigs slender, erect or drooping, brownish or reddish, not fragile, forming a narrow crown, adpressed pilose when young, glabrescent; buds lanceolate-oblong, flattened, acute, to 6 × 1.5−2 mm, sericeous. Decorticated wood smooth. Leaves ± narrowly lanceolate, usually c. 6−7 × as long as wide, 5−10 × 1−3 cm, ± long-acuminate, finely serrate, silky adpressed-pilose when young, glabrescent; petiole 5−8 mm, eglandular. Stipules small, lanceolate, caduceus. Catkins borne on leafy stalks, appearing with leaves, dense, cylindrical, often bisexual, rachis densely pubescent; male 25−50 × 3−4 mm before emergence of anthers, stamens 2, filaments hairy towards base, anthers 0.5−0.6 mm; female 3−5 × c. 0.6 cm, lax, nectaries 1 or 2, ovary ovoid-conical, obtuse, glabrous, subsessile at first; fruiting pedicels 0.2−0.8 mm, ± equalling nectary.

 

Flowering time: April−May.

Habitat: Edges of lakes, rivers and streams, nr s.l. −2000 m.

 

Reference:

Skvortsov AK & Edmondson JR (1982). Salix alba L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 7: 704.

Public Description:

Salix alba subsp. alba, commonly known as “white willow”, is native to Europe and western and central Asia. The name "white willow" in all three languages, Turkish, English and Latin, comes from the fact that the lower surface of the leaves is white. It is a deciduous tree that grows about up to 30 m tall. The wood is tough, strong, and light in weight, but has minimal resistance to decay. On the other hand, the white willow is fast-growing, but relatively short-lived, being impressionable to several diseases.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 (Salix L.). 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 (2018). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salix_alba, Accessed date: 03.02.2018.

Anonymous 2 (2018). https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/search/?q=Salix+alba+subsp.+alba+,Accessed date: 03.02.2018.

Mataracı T (2012). Salix alba (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.