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Willow Trees
Willow Tree, Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Photo: Anne Wiesen

Tree of Remembrance: Willow Family (Salicaceae)

The willow is a tall, deciduous tree, growing 30-80 feet tall, with a 20-35 foot spread of graceful arching branches. Smaller branches are supple and flexible like reeds allowing small breezes to often set the entire tree in motion. Leaves are slender and oval-shaped. The downward arching form of the weeping willow (Salix babylonica) is the most dramatic weeping form of all the willows. Other willows too, however, can also take on this pendulous quality (Salix alba 'Tristis', and Salix pendulina 'Elegantissima'.

Healing Association
The downward habit of the willow branches gives the willow tree an association with the more gentle and inward aspect of the human emotions. In bringing our attention inward, the Trees of Remembrance remind us that grieving is a powerful attribute of the human species, and a vital step in the individual and collective healing processes. Grieving reminds us we are profoundly connected to one another. Remembrance allows us to stay connected to those we have cherished, and to continue to act with the power of our love and connection.

Habitat Stabilizer: Members of the genus, Poplar, also of the Salicaceae Family, have been described as "the great healers of the land that lies bleeding and torn, scoured or burned." (Cullina, p. 198) As healers, poplars are among the first species to move into a disturbed or degraded landscape. They stabilize habitats that will eventually give way to longer-lived, slower growing trees.

Rapid Growth: A species of Poplar, the Eastern Cottonwood, is the fastest growing native species in America, averaging growth in good conditions, of five feet in one season. Our ability to heal requires movement: an ability to move out of distress and into the flow of life again.

The Willows manufacture a medicinal compound for relieving pain, now used almost universally. In 1838, salicylic acid, the main active ingredient in willow bark, was isolated as a forerunner of aspirin. The chemical drug, aspirin was first produced in 1899. (Chevalier, p. 128). Willow leaves and bark have been used to alleviate pain across cultures for thousands of years. (See Ethnobonical Uses below.) The willow tree has made an immense contribution to our world through its role in the relief of pain. The Willows manufacture a hormone from which "rooting hormone" is derived. Before rooting hormone was available commercially, a twig of willow was put in water with the stem cutting of a plant one wished to propagate. The willow family, thus, is a great promoter of healing, in assisting movement and growing into life and change.

Planting Requirements
Moist or wet soils are the rule, and at least half a day's sun. Willows tolerate almost any soil, coarse sand to fine silt loams. PH 6.5-7.5. They are tolerant of compaction, but sensitive to pollution. Propagation of the willow can be as easy as plucking a stem, and placing it in a moist medium, upright like a little tree. The willow tree carries a hormone from which "rooting hormone" is derived. Landscape Caution: The roots of the willow tree can stray two to three times their dripline area, and can clog septic systems and storm drains.

Willow trees thrive by streams and rivers. One can often read the presence of water in a landscape from a distance by the noting populations of willow. It is possible too, that the running water aids the human ability to access our own wellspring emotion and tears.

"The fresh streams ran be her, and murmur'd her moans,
Sing willow, willow, willow; Her salt hears fell from her,
and soften'd the stones, Sing, willow, willow, willow."
Shakespeare Othello, Avt IV, sc. 3
A Short Story: Willows at the Museum of Jewish Heritage
"Not long before the first anniversary of September 11, I walked the promenade in Battery Park City, keeping in my thoughts the idea of memorial, and how it has historically been expressed. Is it always sorrow and grief that is being expressed, I wondered? Are there memorials that point a way to a more hopeful future? On approaching the Museum of Jewish Heritage, also called "A Living Memorial to the Holocaust", I saw large weeping willows planted in close proximity to the museum building, and behind them, tall swaying grasses. I felt a great tenderness in response to these willows. In a moment I understood that the power of grieving is in the recognition that we are profoundly connected to one another, and finally to all life. Grieving loss is the other side of joyfully celebrating connection. I felt awe in the ability of these trees, in this place and at this moment to connect me to other people, to feel anguish in loss, and tenderness in remembrance."

Uses in the Landscape

Structure
  • Performs well as riverine planting
  • Stabilizes watercourses
  • Serves as a visual and auditory screen
  • Smaller varieties can be used in rock gardens: dwarf willows, arctic and alpine willows

Sensorial
  • Brings a soft and flowing texture to the landscape
Food and Habitat for Wildlife
  • Leaves support the larvae of many moth and butterfly species.
  • The soft twigs of willow provide winter forage for small mammals.

Healing Ethnobotanical Uses
The information provided below is intended for educational purposes only. Please contact your local licensed herbalists for safe and proper medicinal uses of this plant.

Native American Medicine
Leaves of the native willows have been used in Native American traditional healing to reduce fevers and relieve pain associated with inflammation from arthritis, rheumatism, and headaches.

American Folk Culture
Healers recommended the stringent leaves to cure dysentery, control bleeding, and to treat eczema, gangrene, and cancerous sores. Peoples of the Appalachian Mountains used willow leaves and bark to break fevers and relieve pain of rheumatism, neuralgia, and gout.

Chinese Medicine
As early as 500 BCE, Chinese healers recommended willow to control pain.

European Medicine
The Greek physician, Dioscorides, claimed that the leaves of the willow stayed bleeding as in nosebleeds, alleviated deafness, were an affective contraceptive, and an excellent cure for gout. In the 19th century, the French Chemist, Leroux, extracted the active element, "salicine", and by 1899, the less irritating acetyl salicylic acid was manufactured and marketed as aspirin.

Scientific Properties and Actions
Source: Bastyr College of Natural Medicine On-Line Database

  • Constituents: · Phenolic glycosides; salicin, picein and triandrin, with esters of salicylic acid and salicyl alcohol, acetylated salicin, salicortin and salireposide
    · Miscellaneous; tannins, catechin, p-coumaric acid and flavonoids.
  • Actions: Analgesic (reducing pain), anti-inflammatory, tonic
Recommended Species of the Salicaceae Family: Willows, Aspens, Poplars

Native Willow Species
There are about 40 species native to North America
Sage Willow (S. candida)
Pussy Willow (S. discolor)
Coyote Willow, Sandbar Willow (S. exigua)
Snowbed Willow, Herb-like Willow (S. herbacea)
Shining Willow (S. lucida)

Native Poplar Species recommended for Eastern United States
Balsam Poplar (P. balsamifera)
Eastern Cottonwood (P. deltoides)
Quaking Aspen (P. tremuloides)

Willow Species from Europe
Crack Willow (Salix fragilis)
White Willow (Salix alba

Willow Species from Asia

Black Willow (S. melanostachys), Japan.
Weeping Willow (S. babylonica), China

The Willow's Community of Trees: Floodplain Forest
Source: NRG
The Floodplain forest occurs in the lowlands of floodplains and river deltas. These areas flood annually in the Spring, and the higher areas are flooded irregularly. The photograph below depicts a willow tree (top center) in a lakeside forest context.

Other Trees of the Floodplain Forest
Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
River Birch (Betula nigra)
Common Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis)
White Ash (Fraxinus americana)
Green Ash (Fraxinus pensylvanica)
Sweet Gum (Liquidamber styraciflua)
Black Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica)
American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)
Cotttonwood (Populus deltoides)
Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor)
Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
Black Willow (Salix nigra)
American Linden (Tilia americana)