Willow - tree of the family Willow: description, photo

By breaking a garden or a small park, each person ponders what trees are best to choose. A beautiful willow becomes a willow. The tree perfectly fits into the overall color and will please the owner and the whole family with their healing properties. It is not very capricious, but it does have its own peculiarities.

Tree propagation

Today many people know how the willow looks. The photo of the tree is easy to find. And these plants appeared many years ago. Archaeologists have found prints of leaves of willow in sediments that refer to the Cretaceous period.

Some representatives of the family are found even beyond the Arctic Circle. Dimensions range from trees with a trunk fifteen meters to small shrubs. In nature, a large number of willows, some are more common, others are not so well known.

Sludge, rakit, willow, willow, vine, tal - all these are trees and shrubs that belong to the same family - Willow.

Detailed study of willow

People study nature all the time. Natural knowledge helps to survive. Collecting plants for food, it should be understood that it carries a danger, and where the useful elements are hidden.

The first descriptions of willows are found in the first century. Pliny the Elder described in his books more than five types. With the development of science, people are increasingly learning about living nature and are trying to classify everything. Scientists have always been interested in willow. A tree, the species of which many years ago were not so numerous (more than two dozen), created a number of disputes between Linnaeus and Skopoli.

The family was also studied in Russia. It was the Soviet scientist Skvortsov who collected and arranged all available data on trees, carried out a typification and selected the appropriate names, and identified subspecies.

However, their huge diversity to this day causes controversy and different opinions in the scientific community. In some countries there are even own schools to study these trees. A huge variety of shapes and colors is represented by a willow. A photo of a tree is often a weeping type located on the banks of rivers or lakes. Probably, because these plants look especially bright and inspired.

Representatives of these plants can be observed in the botanical gardens of England and Paris.

Family Willow

Three trees: poplar, willow and chozenia. What unites them? All of them are members of the Iowa family and together number more than four hundred species. The main part grows in regions with a moderate climate, but there are plants that have reached the tropics, which indicates a variety of possible cultivation options. There are trees from the family growing in Africa.

These trees love light and moisture, but in varying degrees. Many are able to endure life in conditions with a lack of water. If we talk about poplars, they are represented only by trees. High and strong trunks with lush crowns.

And yet the willow is a tree or a bush? It can be a tree with a huge high trunk or a lush bush, a small spreading plant. But the smallest species (from the Arctic and the Alps) still did not become herbs.

Willow can be found on the river bank. This is one of the best places for a tree - lots of moisture and sun. In this case, individual specimens can be found on slopes, sands, swamps and in the forest (as a mix to other trees).

Three kinds of willow

Poplar can be considered the most primitive representative of the family. Although in some areas they occur almost at every step. They are of great importance for man. Due to their natural growth rate and unpretentious nature they become an excellent source of wood.

Chosenia is represented by only one species. The tree is very fond of sunlight and grows on the ground, which consists of a mixture of gravel and sand. Groves from Chosenia do not grow. Aging, they dry up and disintegrate, or they are replaced by other species. It is quite difficult to multiply, so they do not have much distribution.

Willow is a tree that is the most diverse family of the family. You can meet him in any geographical location. It is divided into three subgenus: Salix, Vetrix and Chamaetia. Each of them has its own characteristics and a lot of representatives. You can meet such trees in many places of our planet. Huge, strong and small decorative.

Subgen Salix

Most of the representatives are trees. The list includes about thirty species. Such a willow is a tree, whose leaves are always sharp, flat. The veins are not depressed, and the edges are not twisted.

White willow is medium or large. The leaves are whitish with a silvery tinge. Most often grows in river valleys. They are often bred, especially in rural areas.

In addition, there are decorative representatives. Weeping willow is a tree that can be found in Asia Minor. It was from there that the representative, wearing the name fragile. A torn branch of such a tree is good for rooting. Thanks to this, the species spread far beyond its homeland - this tree can be found in many parts of Europe.

Willow five-type is interesting for its external characteristics. It has beautiful foliage, as if covered with gloss. Blooms the latest of all representatives of a kind, and only by the end of the warm pore its seeds ripen. All autumn and winter the tree is decorated with hanging dry earrings.

Vetrix and Hamita

Together, these two subspecies number more than three hundred representatives. The willow tree, the description of which is given below, occurs in forest zones with moderate climatic conditions and refers to the subspecies of winds (willows or breds). It has large sprawling branches and a smooth trunk. Perfectly tolerates transplantation under various conditions, so it is quite popular with gardeners. The subspecies of windfalls are a willow, a tree or a shrub quite large. In addition, representatives differ in the structure of the kidneys, early flowering and shoots with missing or underdeveloped foliage.

The group of hamatea includes, for the most part, undersized bushes, some of which are creeping. Earrings are located at the very end of the foliage shoot. Ripen seeds quite late. In the forest-tundra you can most often see a willow gray-blue. Interestingly grow the polar and grassy. Their trunk is deeply submerged in soil or moss, and only thin branches with foliage come out.

The most common representatives

In Europe, Russia, Central Asia on the slopes, fringes and forests, you can meet willow goat.

This plant is ten meters tall and has a round and dense crown. Sometimes it can be a shrub.

Another tree of the genus ischa kozya is the willow Mas, characterized by spreading foliage, greenish bark and dark red shoots. The plant is unpretentious to the soil, grows quickly enough, and the average life expectancy is thirty years.

A fairly well-known tree in our region is willow. Description of the appearance of the weeping beauty has a fantastic and romantic story - about a girl who lost her lover and turned into an elegant tree. Standing on the shore, she still shed tears, remembering the loss.

Application

A distinctive feature of the willow, which is actively used by all mankind, can be considered a well-developed root system. Usually it covers a large space, has many branches. Thanks to this, it keeps the soil well. It is used for:

• Strengthening of loose rocks;

• Regulation of rivers in mountainous areas;

• Strengthening the banks of canals and in places of dams;

• Strengthening of sharp sloping slopes;

• Prevention of erosion in the steppes;

• The retention of sands in places with high humidity.

Wood is suitable as a material for crafts, it is quite soft and light. In some areas of the willow erected residential buildings. Some animals like to feast on foliage. Willow - a tree that is considered an excellent honey-bearer, is readily visited by bees to collect nectar.

The bark is used in tanning the skin. It also produces a variety of weaving, as well as from flexible and durable branches.

Use in folk medicine

It is difficult to find a tree that looks like a willow tree, which would have such a wide distribution and a variety of uses.

Trees of all kinds have useful substances in their composition. Especially rich are the goat, the brittle willow and some other representatives.

Medicines based on the bark help with inflammation, relieve pain, increase the ability of blood to clot, reduce the production of urine.

After conducting clinical studies, the efficacy of willow was established during the treatment of hypertension.

People suffering from tachycardia and neurosis, you can take a decoction or infusions based on inflorescences.

Since ancient times, it was believed that the magical properties of the willow. What kind of tree is used in Christian rituals? Verba, which belongs to the family of willow. Previously, it attributed the strongest healing properties. It was believed that by swallowing the kidney, you can get rid of fever and other diseases.

Broths are used externally or they are drunk - depending on the problem. For example, they rinse their mouth with inflammation and make baths with a strong sweat allocation.

Breeding

People engaged in weaving from the vine, have some difficulties in finding materials. Therefore, many people think about breeding their own small plantation.

For good growth, you should choose an illuminated and sufficiently humid place. It is best that the chemical composition of the soil is acidic.

You can grow a new tree using seeds or cuttings. So that they get accustomed and give good shoots, you should carefully consider the selection of the part for germination. It is best to use the shank, which is located at the very bottom of the trunk. This part is called a coma.

Willow is a tree planted in the spring or autumn period. The thickness and height depend on the frequency of the arrangement. The closer the trees are, the thinner the trunk will be.