''Salix'' × ''sepulcralis''
'Chrysocoma', or Weeping Golden Willow, is the most popular and widely grown
weeping tree
Weeping trees are trees characterized by soft, limp twigs. This characterization may lead to a bent crown and pendulous branches that can cascade to the ground. While weepyness occurs in nature, most weeping trees are cultivars. Because of their ...
in the warm temperate regions of the world. It is an artificial hybrid between
''S. alba'' 'Vitellina' and
''S. babylonica''. The first parent provides the frost hardiness and the golden shoots and the second parent the strong weeping habit.
This cross was originally made at the Späth Nursery (Berlin, Germany) and was first mentioned in their 1888 nursery catalogue as ''S. vitellina pendula'' nova.
Being a cultivar from the Chrysocoma Group, which includes all crosses between ''S. alba'' and ''S. babylonica'', it is much hardier and more long-lived than the Babylon Willow (''
Salix babylonica
''Salix babylonica'' (Babylon willow or weeping willow; ) is a species of willow native to dry areas of northern China, but cultivated for millennia elsewhere in Asia, being traded along the Silk Road to southwest Asia and Europe.Flora of China'' ...
''). This particular cultivar is easily distinguished from the other Golden Weeping Willow (''S.'' × ''sepulcralis'') by its androgynous catkins.
Description
A
weeping tree
Weeping trees are trees characterized by soft, limp twigs. This characterization may lead to a bent crown and pendulous branches that can cascade to the ground. While weepyness occurs in nature, most weeping trees are cultivars. Because of their ...
, not much more than 22m high. Bark greyish-brown, deeply fissured. Twigs very slender, at first thinly subadpressed pubescent, soon becoming glabrous. Golden- or greenish-yellow in their first year, later becoming olive-green. Catkins appearing with the leaves in April, terminal on very short, spreading, leafy, lateral shoots, peduncle and rhachis softly villose. Catkins male, female or most commonly androgynous.
Synonymy
*''Salix alba'' 'Vitellina Pendula'
[Hillier (1981). Hillier's Manual of Trees & Shrubs, ed 5: 575pp. Hillier Nurseries Ltd., Romsey.]
*''Salix babylonica'' 'Ramulis Aureis'
*''Salix × chrysocoma'' Dode, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 55: 655 (1908 publ. 1909).
*''Salix'' × ''sepulcralis'' nothovar. ''chrysocoma'' (Dode) Meikle, Watsonia 15: 274 (1985).
*''Salix vitellina pendula'' Späth, Cat. (1888).
*
'Salix alba'' 'Tristis'This name is often misapplied to this cultivar.
Gallery
Salix chrysocoma (10).JPG, Leaf (''Salix chrysocoma'')
Salix chrysocoma (11).JPG, Leaf(''Salix chrysocoma'')
Salix chrysocoma (3).JPG, Trunk (''Salix chrysocoma'')
Salix chrysocoma (5).JPG, ''Salix chrysocoma''
Salix chrysocoma (4).JPG, Leaves (''Salix chrysocoma'')
See also
*
''Salix Sepulcralis'' Group
*
''Salix babylonica'': Horticultural selections and related hybrids
*
''Salix alba'': Varieties, cultivars and hybrids
*
Weeping tree
Weeping trees are trees characterized by soft, limp twigs. This characterization may lead to a bent crown and pendulous branches that can cascade to the ground. While weepyness occurs in nature, most weeping trees are cultivars. Because of their ...
References
External links
Kew Gardens, species page
Chrysocoma
Weeping trees
Ornamental plant cultivars