2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Willow (lat. Salix alba) - a woody or shrub plant belonging to the Willow family.
Description
The willow is a pretty pretty shrub or tree, the height of which can reach thirty meters, and the diameter is one and a half meters. Each tree is covered with a fairly hard bark of a dark gray color and is equipped with spreading paniculate crowns. And upon closer examination, you can see a huge number of deep cracks on the bark.
Lanceolate, rather long and very beautiful silvery-silky pussy willow leaves are pointed at the tips. All of them sit on short petioles and have serrated edges.
Attractive yellowish-greenish pussy willow flowers are collected in spectacular oblong earrings. As a rule, pussy willow blooms in April or May. And its fruits, which look like boxes, ripen in May and June.
The willow is endowed with the ability to form a truly incredible number of a wide variety of hybrid forms with other representatives of the Willow family.
Where grows
It will not be difficult to see the Verba in Russia (mainly in the European part), in the Central Asian territory and in the Siberian expanses, as well as in the Caucasus and the Urals. She is very fond of all kinds of shrub thickets, picturesque flood meadows and river banks.
Application
Willow is widely used for extremely unimportant appetite and asthenic syndromes. It will also serve well in malaria (willow is an excellent substitute for quinine) or a wide variety of infectious ailments. At the same time, the bark is mainly used for such purposes.
A decoction of the bark is often drunk with diarrhea, as it is an excellent astringent. In addition, it copes well with inflammation and is often prescribed for those suffering from gout and various joint diseases.
Willow bark boasts a pronounced tonic effect and is excellent for low blood pressure. The infusion of its leaves and bark is also used externally - with furunculosis, the presence of trophic ulcers, all kinds of skin ailments and excessive sweating of the legs. And in case of inflammatory processes in the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx or mouth, it will become an effective rinse. Quite often, pussy willow is also used for inflammation of the mucous membranes of the colon and stomach, as well as for bleeding from internal organs and for angina.
The bark is usually harvested in the spring from two or three year old shoots. This is done during the period of sap flow - in this case, the bark will very easily lag behind the wood. In order to harvest the bark, the willow branches are first cut or chopped off, and only then they begin to free them from the bark. The raw materials obtained in this way are dried on the flooring or in the attic. However, you can simply hang the bark in the shade on hangers specially designed for this, or use dryers, the temperature in which does not exceed fifty degrees. The bark will be considered completely dried up only if, when trying to bend it, it does not bend, but breaks with a bang.
In a number of countries of the subtropical and temperate zones, the willow is often cultivated as a spectacular ornamental plant.
Contraindications
It is strictly forbidden for pregnant women to consume willow for medical purposes.
Growing and caring
The willow can tolerate not only excessive moisture and shading, but also some soil salinity, as well as short flooding. And if its trunk and underground organs are under water for a long time, bryophyte roots will begin to form on the trunk, contributing to the best absorption of oxygen and moisture by the tree.
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