Botanical lore
Although
there are over five hundred species of willow, the white willow is the most
common of the genus and most easily identified by its often irregular shape,
where the trunk leans slantwise under a wide crown of floating silvery foliage.
This habit identifies its kinship with water. Being waterproof, willow enjoys
water, especially in well ventilated soils, where it can tolerate long floods.
A
flat root system can mean it gets washed away by rivers, or blown over by the
wind and storms, however, even separated trunks or branches can just keep on
growing in a new place or in a modified direction. A new horizontal trunk might
start growing a mass of new shoots and, as single twigs can also root in damp
soil, its ability to produce new suckers or grow from cuttings makes the willow
potentially immortal.
However, although white willow grows up to eighty feet, it
rarely lives beyond much beyond a hundred years. Goat willow can reach more than
five hundred years of age, though rarely grows above thirty five feet. Its
powerful ability to regenerate makes white willow the perfect maintainer of
river valleys frequently exposed to spring floods.
Its cousin, the goat willow
(called pussy willow in England and sally willow in Ireland), with its broader,
elliptic leaves can thrive in drier conditions, where it is often found in
dumps, wastelands or on the edge of moors and even in light mountain woodlands
up to 6,500 feet. White willow, by contrast does not grow above 2,500 feet and
is distinguished by its long, lance-shaped, pointed leaves, which are four to
six times longer than they are wide. Although all willows share fast growth and
survive storm damage, their wood is soft, not very durable and soon falls prey
to wood fungi.
For
pollarding and coppicing, willow is excellent and unmatched.
All willows are either male or female (dioecious) and their flowers appear in
early March, forming an important early source of food for bees. The grey-silver
catkins and seeds are hairy, and the silky plumes allow it to be blown to new
habitats, where its robust seeds germinate and grow strongly.
Medicinally well
described by greeks such as Hippocrates and Paracelsus, as well as Culpeper and
others, willow bark is an ancient remedy for soothing pains, particularly
rheumatics. It has been used for centuries to treat digestive inflammations,
kidney and bladder problems, rashes and headaches. With febrifugal, sudorific
and astringent effects, its main component - salicin - oxidizes in the human
body to become salicylic acid.
Salicin was identified in 1827 and its analgesic
form, acetysalicylic acid (aspirin), in 1898. Like aspirin, willow bark has the
disadvantage that, taken in constant doses, it irritates the stomach lining,
although it is excellent for gargling and bleeding gums, mouth inflammations or,
as a footbath, for sweating feet. Interestingly, willow is a good example of the
way nature reflects the affliction - here associated with wetness - in its cure,
growing as it does in wetlands. This homoeopathic aspect applies to the Bach
Flower remedy also, as willow (salix vitellina) helps those who constantly blame
others (or are 'wet') to think constructively.
Odd notes:
Root: salix (latin) helice (greek)
Sap: as drink to clear vision;
Wood: baskets, beehives, lobster pots, pegs,
floats, fencing. artists charcoal, artificial limbs. osier beds, hedging.
Seeds: have feathery down, used for stuffing
mattresses;
Bark: mixes with oatmeal for food, treats
wounds, tanning, twine;
Leaves and bark: source of salicylic acid;