Willow presentation

2. Willow
• GAELIC NAME: Sáille,
• LATIN NAME: Salix
• COMMON / FOLK NAMES:
– Sally,
– Osier
– Wicker,
– Withie, With or Withy

3. Willow
• PLACE OF ORIGIN: Europe - Asia, temperate zones. Also grows across
Canada and North America.
• HABITAT: Wet soils along the banks of rivers. Open areas - does not like
shade.
• DESCRIPTION: Can grow to a height of 15 to 21 m in moist soils. Easily
grown from cuttings, can be coppiced and will grow quickly again.
• FLOWERING PERIOD: Leaf buds appear early spring. Catkins appear in
late spring to early summer.
• POLLINATION: Wind and insects.
• SEED DISPERSAL: Wind and Water.

4. Willow
• Ten thousand years ago, the last ‘ice
age’ ended.
• After the ice had melted, the landscape
was completely barren.
• Slowly plant life re-colonised with
lichens and mosses first, gradually being
replaced by grasses and other flowering
plants and trees arriving later.
• Willows were among the first of our
native trees to appear on the landscape
with dwarf varieties being seen eight or
more thousand years ago.
• As conditions for plant and animal life
improved, larger willows spread,
especially adapted to colonising the
boggy ground of vast river valleys.

5. Willow
• Willows are so easy to grow. Some native species can grow up to 2 metres in
six months!
• All you need to do is first find a willow and cut off a piece of the previous
year’s growth. This will be a branch as thick as your finger (or thinner) and
with smooth bark. You only need a piece the length of a new pencil (c20cm).
• Put into the ground, pushed into a flower pot or even left in a jar of water
and it will produce white roots. It does not even matter which way up you put
the piece of willow!
• The fastest growing species is common osier, but almost any species of willow
will grow easily from a cutting. Cutting and harvesting the regrowth every
few years is known as coppicing.

6. Willow
• Willows are fascinating trees and are
very valuable to wildlife. In Britain it is
equaled only by oaks for the variety of
insects and animals it supports.
• There are more than two hundred
species of insect that are found only on
willows, and where there are lots of
insects there will be birds to eat them.
• Many willows grow along the banks of
rivers so the insects often fall into the
water, where fish feed on them.
• Their roots help stabilise the banks of
rivers and stop them being washed
away.
• They also cast shade on the river and
create hiding places for fish.

7. Willow
• Just as wildlife depends on willows, so
do people.
• We use them for many different
purposes.
• Red Indians used to tie strips of willow
bark around their heads if they had a
headache! Crazy people, but were they?
• Willow bark contains a chemical called
salicin and salicylic acid, the active
ingredient in aspirin, was prepared
from salicin. So a strip of willow bark
was as good as a trip to Boots for the
native Americans.

8. Willow
• There are thousands of varieties of willow, each
with special attributes such as coloured bark,
contorted stems or unusual leaf shapes.
• The different varieties take different many forms,
from the traditional cricket bat willow to alpine
bushy varieties. Leaf shape is also variable, with
many willow having the typical long slender leaves,
but some producing broader or contorted leaves.
• Bark colour varies from gold through to yellow and
green to dark purple.
• Willow is cheap and easy to establish from cuttings.
• It is grown in osier beds and coppiced or pollarded
at regular intervals.

9. Uses for willow
• Willow has been used for a variety of purposes over
the ages and all parts of it have their uses. The
trunk, branches, root, bark, twigs, leaves and a few
interior substances. From Iron Age man weaving
hurdles to the middle ages when willow bark was
chewed for pain relief. The Celts considered it
sacred. It has been used medicinally, as a dye plant,
to make charcoal and as a light timber. The Dutch
traditionally make their clogs from willow wood.
• The wood is good for turning and Celts made their
chariot wheel spokes, and Gypsies their clothes pegs,
from it. Romans used it to reinforce steep soil
embankments.
• The bark was used to make a reddish-brown dye, for
tanning leather and as fodder for livestock.
• Some of theses uses are no more than historical
interest but the wood is still prized for the making of
cricket bats.

10. Commercial uses for willow
• Wood chips for on-farm heating and
gasification
• Fast growing wind breaks on upland
farms
• Cover for pheasant shoots
• Cut rods used for river bank support
• Biofilters for farm run-off such as sheep
dip and cattle slurry
• Biomass for wood burning power stations
• Woodchips for paths and horticultural
mulch use
• Basketry, hurdles and living sculptures

11. Uses for willow
• The timber of willow is light and not durable,
so it is not suitable for use outside such as in a
fence post.
• Uses for willow wood include coracle frames
(Welsh boats) and charcoal manufacture.
• The bark can also be used for tanning animal
hides to make leather, as it contains tannin.
• Willow's ability to absorb shock without
splintering is still utilised in the making of
cricket bats and stumps (note also the
similarity between 'wicket' and 'wicker').

12. Uses for willow
• Willow gives a soft but light and tough
wood with a resistance to splintering,
well suited to a diverse range of uses -
polo balls, steamer paddles, tool handles,
boxes, milkmaids yokes and artificial
limbs such as wooden legs, and artists
charcoal.
• The major timber product is the cricket
bat which is made from the variety Salix
Coerulea and then only from the female
tree.
• Charcoal made from ‘Crack’ Willow is
used in gunpowder.
• Black Willow is good for furniture,
harps, millwork, cabinets, doors, barrels,
boxes, toys, baseball bats, and pulp.

13. Uses for willow
• Today willow is being used for ‘biomass’ production and forms a renewable
energy resource.
• Fast growing willows are planted in fields where they produce lots of shoots as
thick as a wrist in about 5 or 6 years. These are harvested, made into wood
chips that are burned to heat water that in turn powers turbines to produce
electricity.
• After harvesting the willows just grow again so that they can be harvested
again after 5 years or so. As they grow they ‘lock-up’ carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere (an important green-house gas).

14. Uses for willow
• The pliant stems are used to make
baskets and 'wickerwork’.
• In Neolithic times they were used to
make the walls of houses (daub and
wattle).
• Willow rods were also used as
thatching in European traditional
homes.

15. Uses for willow
• Some willows grow thin pliable branches and
these are used for weaving into fine baskets
or more heavy objects such as fishing creels
lobster pots or livestock and fuel baskets.
• Willows were grown especially for these uses
in ‘osier beds’ that were harvested annually
to provide lots of thin ‘rods’ of willow.
• Willow is used to make ‘living’ screens,
windbreaks and rustic garden fencing.

16. Uses for willow
• Basketmaking is an ancient craft. Woven material of
some sort was known to the most primitive of tribes.
• Baskets were used in agriculture, as seed containers, for
gathering and as winnowing fans.
• Baskets as containers for fruit and vegetables - known
by names - like flats, rips, hampers, pickers, sieves,
strikes or peck cobs. Fish containers such as herring
crans and cockle flats - skeps for textiles, laundry and
other delivery baskets and then baskets for hoisting
coal, rubble and minerals. These were all sturdy and
functional and probably made in the area where they
were needed from local willow. Fine willow was used to
make shopping baskets, clothes baskets, babies cribs
and sewing and knitting baskets.
• It was used to support the medieval harbour wall at
Dover, to carry building materials and even as part of
the buildings themselves - Winchester Cathedral was
found to have been built entirely on a bed of willow.

17. Uses for willow
• Large willow trees make great
ornamental or shade trees.
• Closely planted willow is used to
protects riverbanks from erosion,
creates buffer zones and dries the soil
in soggy / flooded gardens.

18. Uses for willow
• From some date before 1066 and up until 1826
when a sum of money was paid into the
Exchequer the amount was recorded on a stick of
willow by cutting notches to represent pounds,
shillings and pence.
• This stick was then cut into two and half given as
a receipt.
• To be a valid record both the grain and the pieces
had to match; obviously a successful method to
have survived over 800 years.
• When this tally stick system was abandoned in
1826, the fire lit to burn the sticks got out of hand
and damaged the Houses of Parliament.

19. Medicinal uses
• Country folk have been familiar with
the healing properties of willow for a
long time. They made an infusion
from the bitter bark as a remedy for
colds and fevers, and to treat
inflammatory conditions such as
rheumatism.
• Young willow twigs were also chewed
to relieve pain. In the early
nineteenth century modern science
isolated the active ingredient
responsible, salicylic acid, which was
also found in the meadowsweet plant.
From this the world's first synthetic
drug, acetylasylic acid, was developed
and marketed as Aspirin.

20. Medicinal uses
• On a herbal level, willow bark has been used for its pain-relieving qualities for
at least 2,000 years.
• Native Americans chewed or boiled a tea from the willow's leaves or inner
bark to relieve fever or other minor pain like toothaches, headaches, or
arthritis. The willow is often given the nickname "toothache tree".
• Sallow bark tea is recommended for indigestion, whooping cough and catarrh.
• It can also be used as an antiseptic and disinfectant.
• A decoction can be used for gum and tonsil inflammations and as a footbath
for sweaty feet.
• Willow bark is used to treat rheumatic conditions, gout, heartburn, to stop
internal bleeding, gargle for sore throats, wounds, and burns.
• Used to disinfect bandages. It is a good eyewash, and if taken orally will clear
the skin and face of blemishes, or applied to hair for dandruff. Its flower
essences will remedy bitterness and resentment.

21. Magical usage
• Willow is closely linked with a lot of folk lore
due to its unusual or ‘magic’ properties.
• Most willow species grow and thrive close to
water or in damp places, and this theme is
reflected in the legends and magic associated
with these trees.
• The moon too recurs as a theme, the
movement of water being intimately bound
up with and affected by the moon. For
example, Hecate the powerful Greek goddess
of the moon and of willow, also taught
sorcery and witchcraft, and was 'a mighty
and formidable divinity of the Underworld'.
Helice was also associated with water, and
her priestesses used willow in their water
magic and witchcraft.

22. Magical usage
• It has a powerful feminine 'yin' energy. Can
help a person get in touch with their
subconscious feelings and desires.
• The words “willow (wicker)” and “Wicca” are
thought to be derived from the same root
meaning “to bend”, or “to be pliant.”
• The Willow wand can be used to banish long-
held grief. It is also a favourite wand of poets
and those seeking inspiration.
• The willow muse, called Heliconian, was sacred
to poets, and the Greek poet Orpheus carried
willow branches on his adventures in the
Underworld. He was also given a lyre by
Apollo, and it is interesting to note that the
sound boxes of harps used to be carved from
solid willow wood.

23. Magical usage
• Used for love, protection, healing, and
peaceful magic.
• Used to create loyalty, make friendship
pacts, treaties, or alliances.
• Used for intuition, knowledge, gentle
nurturing,.
• Its leaves are used in love attraction sachets.
• Used to dowse for water (underground),
earth energies, and buried objects.
• Placed in homes, it protects against evil and
malign sorcery.
• The Willow can be used to bind all spells for
greater efficacy.

24. Magical usage
• Carried, willow wood will give bravery,
dexterity, and help overcome the fear of
death.
• If you needs to get something off your
chest or share a secret, confess to a
willow and your secret will be trapped.
• Willow wood is good for magical harps.
• Good for planting and lining burial
graves for its symbolism of death,
protection and rebirth.
• If you wants to know if you will be
married, on New Year's Eve, throw
your shoe or boot into a willow, if it
doesn't catch in the branches the first
time, have eight more tries, if successful,
you will wed.

25. Willow lore
• 'Christianised' use of willow to symbolise grief probably
originated with Psalm 137:
– 'By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the willow-trees we hung up our harps.'
• Biblical scholars say these 'willow-trees' were probably
Euphrates poplar and not weeping willows (Salix
babylonica).
• During the 16th and 17th centuries the association
became particular to grief suffered by forsaken lovers,
who also adopted the custom of wearing a cap or crown
made of willow twigs and leaves.
• By the nineteenth century illustrations of weeping
willows were commonly used as ornaments on
gravestones and mourning cards.
• Willow boughs were also used to decorate churches on
Palm Sunday instead of largely unavailable palm leaves.

26. Living willow structures
• Today the weaving of willow is enjoying
a resurgence, and is being applied to
novel situations such as landscape
sculptures, outdoor seating and
children's play huts. All of these are
being made from live cuttings, grown in
situ, to be woven and sculpted into
living structures, bringing together
willow's vitality and utility to enhance
new, often urban, settings.

27. Living willow structures
• Living willow structures and sculptures such as
domes and tunnels are easy to make. It requires
a little skill and lots of imagination.
• Living willow fences, 'fedges', are an attractive
alternative to conventional fencing.
• Some specialist companies construct willow
walls, living willow hurdles filled with soil which
make a solid structure with the added bonus of
acting as a shield against noise and pollution.

28. Living willow structures
• Willow will survive almost anywhere.
It will tolerate shade, but grows best
in bright sunshine, and will grow on
moist, dry or fertile sites as well as in
impoverished or polluted soil. Willow
does not need fertiliser to grow
successfully.
• Almost any type of willow can be
used for living willow structures, but
species that produces long straight
rods are easier to use for large
structures.
• Ideally use two-year-old rods as
uprights, and one-year-old rods for
weaving the structure. However, one-
year-old rods are the easiest and
cheapest to obtain, and although they
are thinner, they are still very strong
and soon grow into sturdy uprights.

29. Equipment required
• Willow rods
• Weed suppressing membrane such as a woven
geotextile or black plastic
• Metal pegs to hold down membrane
• Crowbar or strong metal stake to create holes
- a lump or sledge hammer if the ground is
hard
• Plastic ties or old nylon tights to tie in willow
weave

30. Creating a 'fedge'
• Decide on the size and shape of your fedge
• Mark it out with sticks, sand or landscape
spray paint.
• Lay and peg down the weed suppressing
membrane. The willow is planted through
this.
• Plant uprights every 20-40cm (8-16in). Use
the crowbar or metal stake to make holes
through the membrane and into the ground.
They need to be 30cm (12in) or more deep.
• Next, plant the 'weave'. Plant the rods
diagonally between the uprights, two planted
between each upright. They will cross at the
bottom and continue to cross the other
diagonal rods and uprights until they reach
the top of the structure. They don't need to
be woven together until you finish the top of
the structure.

31. Creating a 'fedge'
• To finish off, weave and plait one-year-
old rods along the top and tie them in
where necessary. These horizontal rods
will eventually die. By the time they are
too brittle to be structurally sound,
however, new willow growth will have
been tied in to secure the structure.
• Be creative and undulate the top of
your fedge. Make holes and windows in
it, be imaginative and follow your
fancy!

32. Tunnels
• Create two fedges running parallel.
• Essentially the same principles apply
except that the tops of the uprights
are tied together to form a series of
archways.
• Rods can be woven or tied into the
apex of the tunnel. Otherwise it can
be left as an open structure and filled
in with new growth over the following
years.

33. Domes
• To create the basic structure three- and two-
year-old rods are useful because of the height
they give.
• Plant the three-year-old rods to create the
main skeleton of the structure.
• Decide where you want your openings and
doorways. Place the rods at each side, rather
like gateposts. Tie the tops together, creating
a sort of wigwam.
• Use the two-year-old rods as uprights and
one-year-old rods as the diagonal weave. The
top of the dome will be open to begin with.
You will gradually close up the gap when new
growth can be woven and tied in during
winter maintenance in the following years.

34. Domes

35. Domes

36. Domes

37. Domes

38. Domes

39. Domes

40. Domes

41. Domes

42. Maintenance
• Your living willow structure will
evolve into new and exciting forms
over its lifetime; but to make this
happen it is essential to maintain the
structure during the winter - new
growth needs to be tied in or pruned
right out.
• Always plant in the winter. Water
occasionally if there is a dry summer
in the first year.

43. Willow wonders

44. Willow wonders

45. Willow wonders

46. Willow wonders

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48. Willow wonders

49. The end