The Weeping Willow
(Salix Babylonica)
Interesting Information About Plant:
The Weeping Willow tree is a native of the extra-tropical Asia and belongs to the group the Crack Willows. This oriental tree’s bark owns mainly all of the medicinal and tanning properties of the willow group. It has been long known in China and Turkey that the Weeping Willow is known its tearful symbolism, used in some places as a cemetery ornament signifying an association of grief for the loved one in the grave. In the ancient times the torches used in funerals were made precisely by Willow wood. It could have been a tree of ill omen as well as in ancient Babylon it is said the soothsayers predicted the death of Alexander the Great deriving from the fact that it was the Willow that swept the crown from his head as he was crossing the Euphrates river in a boat.
Scientific Name: Salix Babylonica
Family Name (Scientific and Common): Salicaceae
Continent of Origin: China
Plant Growth Habit: Tree
Height at Maturity: More than 10 Feet
Life Span: Perennial
Seasonal Habit: Deciduous Perennial
Growth Habitat: Full Sun
Manner of Culture: Native Species
Thorns on Younger Stem: No
Cross Section of Younger Stem: Roundish
Stem (or Trunk) Diameter: More Than The Diameter of a Coffee-Mug
Produces Brownish Bark: Yes
Bark Peeling in Many Areas: Yes
Characteristics of Mature (Brownish) Bark: Bumpy
Type of Leaf: Flat, Thin Leaf
Length of Leaf (or Leaflet): Between the Length of a Credit Card and a Writing-Pen
Leaf Complexity: Simple
Edge of Leaf: Smooth
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Leaf has Petiole: Yes
Patterns of Main-Veins on Leaf (or Leaflet): Pinnate
Leaf Hairiness: No Hairs
Color of Foliage in Summer: Green
Change in Color of Foliage in October: Changes to Yellow
FLowering Season: Spring
Flowers: Single
Type of Flower: Like a Grass Flower
Color of Flower: Yellow
Shape of Individual Flower: Radially symmetrical
Size of Individual Flower: Smaller than a Quarter
Sexuality: Male and Female on Same Plant
Size of Fruit: Between a Quarter and the Length of a Credit Card
Fruit Fleshiness: Fleshy
Shape of Fruit: Long Pod
Color of Fruit at Maturity: Brown or Dry
Fruit Desirable to Birds or Squirrels: Yes
Common Name(s): Weeping Willow
Louisville Plants That Are Most Easily Confused With This One: The Weeping Cherry, others in the Weeping family
Unique Morphological Features of Plant: Sad droopy look of the braches hanging down, “Crying” of the tree when it rains (rain drops travel from the branches to the ends of the leaves and fall to the ground)
Poisonous: None of Plant
Pestiness (weedy, hard to control): Yes
Page prepared by:
Russell Miller
November 2004 |