Part 21

+Weeping Willow. Napoleon's Willow+

Salix babylonica L.

HABIT.--A tree 40-50 feet high, with a short, stout trunk 3-4 feet in diameter; the long, slender branchlets, often many feet in length, droop in graceful festoons, giving to the tree a weeping habit.

LEAVES.--Alternate, simple, 3-7 inches long, 1/4-1/2 inch broad; linear to linear-lanceolate, long-pointed; finely sharp-serrate; thin and firm; glabrous, dark green above, paler beneath; petioles 1/2 inch or less in length, glandular above, often hairy.

FLOWERS.--April-May, with the leaves; dioecious; borne in slender, nearly glabrous catkins 1-2 inches long; calyx 0; corolla 0; scales ovate-lanceolate, slightly hairy; ovary ovoid-conical, very short-stalked, with stigmas longer than the style. Staminate trees apparently do not occur in the United States.

FRUIT.--May-June; 1-celled, narrow-ovoid, sessile capsule, about 3/16 inch long, containing many minute seeds which are furnished with long, silky, white hairs.

WINTER-BUDS.--Terminal bud absent; lateral buds narrow-conical, sharp-pointed, somewhat flattened, brownish, 1/8-1/4 inch long.

BARK.--Twigs glabrous, olive-green; thick and gray on old trunks, rather smooth, or irregularly fissured into shallow, firm ridges.

WOOD.--Light, soft, weak, close-grained, light brown, with thick, whitish sapwood.

NOTES.--A native of Europe and Asia. Often grown in cemeteries. Easily propagated by cuttings. Rapid of growth in rich, damp soil. Sometimes winter-killed because the wood is not ripened.

SUMMER KEY TO THE SPECIES OF POPULUS

a. Leaf-petioles essentially terete.

b. Petioles and lower sides of leaves pubescent; leaves heart-shaped. P. candicans, p. 55.

bb. Petioles and lower sides of leaves glabrous; leaves ovate-lanceolate. P. balsamifera, p. 53.

aa. Leaf-petioles strongly flattened.

b. Petioles and lower sides of leaves tomentose; twigs pubescent. P. alba, p. 47.

bb. Petioles and lower sides of leaves glabrous; twigs glabrous.

c. Leaves distinctly deltoid in shape.

d. Leaves broader than they are long, abruptly acuminate at the apex; marginal teeth not conspicuously incurved; branches erect and more or less appressed to the main stem, forming a narrow, spire-like crown. P. nigra italica, p. 59.

dd. Leaves longer than they are broad, more or less taper-pointed at the apex; marginal teeth rather conspicuously incurved; branches spreading, forming a broad crown. P. deltoides, p. 57.

cc. Leaves ovate to nearly orbicular in shape.

d. Margin of leaves coarsely sinuate-toothed; leaves 3-5 inches long. P. grandidentata, p. 51.

dd. Margin of leaves finely serrate; leaves less than 3 inches long. P. tremuloides, p. 49.

+WINTER KEY TO THE SPECIES OF POPULUS+

a. Branches erect, more or less appressed to the main stem, forming a narrow, spire-like crown. P. nigra italica, p. 59.

aa. Branches spreading, forming a broad crown.

b. Terminal buds 1/8-1/4 inch long, not resinous.

c. Buds and twigs more or less conspicuously white-downy; twigs green. P. alba, p. 47.