White willow

White willow

• Height: up to 25 m
• Trunk: Shrub-like or a tree with a short trunk that branches into many main branches early on; grey-brown bark, deeply fissured lengthwise, swollen
• Crown: broad, open, usually irregular with age
• Leaves: alternate, lanceolate, pointed, 5–12 cm long, margin finely toothed, initially hairy on both sides, later only on the underside, short-stalked
• Flowers: Male, 4–6 cm long, yellow, erect catkins; female, 3–5 cm long, greenish, erect catkins, appearing immediately before leaf emergence in April/May; dioecious (a single tree bears either female or male flowers)
• Fruits/Seeds: Seeds with white fuzz often disperse in small clouds in June
• Other: A cultivated form of the white willow is the weeping willow Salix alba ‘Tristis’ with thin, limp, drooping branches

^{Photos: BUND Naturschutz in Bayern (1,2)}