Salix decipiens

Hoffm.

Salicaceae Edible: Inner bark, Leaves 7,158 iNaturalist observations

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Summary

Deciduous tree tolerating light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils with mildly acid to neutral pH. Not frost tender. Dioecious species requiring both male and female plants for seed production, pollinated by bees. Requires full sun and prefers moist or wet soil conditions.

Description

Edible Uses

The inner bark can be eaten raw or cooked, or dried and ground into a powder to blend with cereal flour for bread-making. It has a very bitter flavour and is considered a famine food, used only when all else fails. Young shoots can be eaten raw or cooked but are not very palatable.

Medicinal Uses

The fresh bark contains salicin, which probably decomposes into salicylic acid (closely related to aspirin) in the human body, and is used as an anodyne and febrifuge.

Distribution

It is a temperate plant.

Where It Grows

Coming Soon

Cultivation

Succeeds in most soils, including wet, ill-drained or intermittently flooded soils, but prefers a damp, heavy soil in a sunny position. Rarely thrives on chalk. This species is possibly a hybrid between S. fragilis and S. alba. Hybridizes freely with other members of this genus. Although the flowers are produced in catkins early in the year, they are pollinated by bees and other insects rather than by the wind. Plants in this genus are notably susceptible to honey fungus. Dioecious. Male and female plants must be grown if seed is required.

Propagation

Seed must be surface sown as soon as it ripens in late spring, as viability is very short — perhaps only a few days. Cuttings of mature wood from the current year's growth can be taken November to February, either in a sheltered outdoor bed or planted straight into their permanent position with a weed-suppressing mulch; these root very easily. Plant out permanently in autumn. Half-ripe cuttings taken June to August in a frame also root very easily.

Other Uses

The very flexible stems are used in basket-making; a male form of the plant is selected for this purpose. Plants are typically coppiced annually, or every two years when thicker upright poles are required.