White willow

The leaf

The leaves are long, narrow and pointed, with finely toothed edges. They are covered in silky hairs that give them a silvery sheen, especially underneath, so from a distance the crown looks grey-green.

The bark

The trunk has grey-brown bark with vertical furrows that cross over each other to form a network. Young twigs are flexible and yellowish-green or olive.

The fruit

The fruits are small capsules gathered in green catkins. When they open in spring they release tiny seeds with white fluff that drift away on the wind.

The flower

It flowers just as the leaves come out, in upright catkins: yellow on male trees and greenish on female trees. Bees visit them a lot, as they are among the first flowers of the year.

1. Jan
2. Feb
3. Mar
4. Apr
5. May
6. Jun
7. Jul
8. Aug
9. Sep
10. Oct
11. Nov
12. Dec

Habit

A tree with an often leaning trunk and a broad, irregular, airy crown. Its branches do not hang down: the garden weeping willow is a different species, or a hybrid, planted as an ornamental.

Where it grows

It grows on the banks of rivers and ditches and in waterlogged soils throughout Catalonia. It almost always appears alongside black poplars, white poplars and alders.