White Willow

Used for timber, weaving wicker baskets, and as a nectariferous plant.

A nectiferous plant; the wood is used as timber and for making cricket bats; young branches are used for weaving baskets. (F. Zhenfu, Z. Shidong & A.K. Skvortsov, l.c.).

Trees to 20(-25) m tall; trunk to 1 m d.b.h.; bark dull gray, fissured; crown spreading. Branchlets brownish, glabrous, tomentose when young. Buds coadnate, ca. 6 × 1.5 mm, apex acute. Stipules caducous; petiole 2-10 mm, sericeous; leaf blade lanceolate, oblanceolate, or obovate-lanceolate, 5-12 (-1.5) × 1-2(-3.5) cm, abaxially tomentose or subglabrous, adaxially often glabrous, both surfaces sericeous when young, base cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acuminate or long acuminate; lateral veins 12-15 on each side of midvein. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin 3-5 cm; peduncle 5-8 mm; bracts yellowish, ovate-lanceolate or obovate-oblong, ciliate, abaxially glabrous, adaxially subglabrous or pilose at base, margin entire. Male flower: glands adaxial and abaxial; stamens 2, free; filaments pilose at base; anthers yellow. Female catkin 3-4.5 cm, to 5.5 cm in fruit; bracts yellowish, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, ciliate, caducous, abaxially cottony at base, adaxially sericeous. Female flower: glands adaxial and abaxial, adaxial gland rarely small; ovary ovoid-conical, 4.5-5 mm, glabrous, shortly stipitate or subsessile; style short, 2-lobed; stigma 2-parted. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May. 2n = 76.

Tree up to 35 m tall, bark dark grey, fissured. Young branches erect or drooping, silky, later becoming glabrous. Buds 6 x 1.5-2 mm, lanceolate-oblong, flattened, silky, acute. Leaves stipulate, stipules small, lanceolate, caducous. Petiole 5-8 mm, eglandular, lamina 5-10-(15) x 1-3 cm, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, finely serrate, silky adpressed pilose when young, becoming subglabrescent. Catkins appearing with leaves, dense, cylindrical, often bisexual, rachis densely pubescent, stalked with entire, oblong-obovate, obtusish bracts. Male catkin 25-50 x 3-4 mm. before anthesis. Stamens 2, free, filaments hairy towards the base, anthers 0.5-0.6 (-7) mm, yellow. Female catkin 3-5 x c. 0.6 cm, lax, glands 1 or 2, ovary ovoid, conical, obtuse, glabrous, subsessile; fruiting stipe 0.2-0.8 mm, equalling gland.

Gansu, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [WC Asia, Europe]

Distribution: Europe except the Arctic W. Siberia; Mediterranean region, S.W. and Central Asia. Often planted. Widely naturalized in Pakistan.

Fl. Per.: April-May.

Along rivers, also cultivated; below 3100 m.