Salix alba

The Salix alba, known as white or silver willow, is part of our landscapes and culture. It has always been found along watercourses and in wet places, often pruned in a pollarded style during the harvest of its long flexible branches used in basketry. When left to grow freely, this large and beautiful tree displays an elegant upright and trailing habit, and its broad rounded crown is adorned with glossy foliage that reveals a silver underside in the wind. A willow tree always adds a romantic atmosphere to the garden. This one, ideal for illuminating dark backgrounds, is best suited for a large garden to enhance the surroundings of large bodies of water.                                                                

Originally from wet areas of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Europe, temperate Asia, and North Africa, Salix alba is a highly adaptable tree with very rapid growth, reaching 20m (65 ft 7 in) in height and 10m (32 ft 10 in) in spread. It belongs to the family Salicaceae and the genus Salix, which includes no less than 300 species distributed in cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Its habit is generally rounded, with the tree developing one or several trunks topped by a wide crown. The long, flexible branches are grey-pink and pubescent when young. They bear deciduous to semi-evergreen leaves, 10 cm (3.9 in) long, narrow and lanceolate in shape. Both sides of the lamina are silky, with the upper side shiny and deep green and the lower side white-silver. Flowering occurs in April-May, at the same time as the young leaves appear. The male catkins are slender, 3 to 5 cm (1.2 to 2 in) long, arched and spreading, yellowish. The female catkins are smaller, denser, and green. The bark of this tree takes on a grey-brown colour and cracks longitudinally as it ages. Its robust taproot and spreading root system perfectly adapts to deep and unstable soils.

For this reason, it is advisable to keep this willow away from pipes. White willow is also a medicinal plant, with its bark being the first source of aspirin. Salix alba can reach the venerable age of 100 years.

White willow can be planted as a solitary tree or on the edge of a body of water in large gardens. Its silver foliage is valuable for bringing light to a darker ensemble, for example, at the boundaries of the countryside. You can find horsetails, reeds, willowherbs, daylilies, bulrushes, and Typha angustifolia, for example, among the plants that can accompany it near the water.

Tip: Collect fallen leaves in autumn and burn them if the tree shows black spots (anthracnose) or yellow-orange spots (rust) during its growth. Once all the leaves have fallen, treat them with a fungicide.