Notable characteristics

1. Frosted branches: young twigs are white frosted

2. Bark on older trunks flaking off with orange-pink colouring of the bark underneath

3. Strongly drooping ('weeping') branches

4. Twisted branches and leaves

5. Low-growing shrubs (up to 1.5 m H) + small leaves (up to 3.5 cm L)

6. Rhombic lenticels on the trunk

7. Broad leaves with grey woolly hairs on top or underside

8. Leaves with an unmistakable very bitter taste

9. Shrub with flattened twigs fasciation, sometimes bent

10. Shrub or small tree with shiny leaves

11. Trees and shrubs with long narrow leaves, leaves not bitter-tasting

12.  Leaves turning black when dried

13. Striae, short and long (note, finer striae become visible only after 1 day of drying)

14. Black catkins, visible in February

15. Striking white-green leaves

Attachments

Buds

Literature list

Appendix 1 'Yellow, orange and red twigs'

Appendix 2 'Comparing willows with reddish leaf hair'

Appendix 3 'Rare sightings'

Appendix 4 'Willow names'

Appendix 5 'Photographs and determination'

Appendix 6 'Willow lecture'

Appendix 7 'Willow cuttings'

Appendix 8 'Flowering times'

Appendix 9 'Plant flash'

Appendix 10  'Salix pentandra'

Appendix 11  'Root hairs'