''Salix babylonica'' (Babylon willow or weeping willow; ) is a species of

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

native to dry areas of northern China, but cultivated for millennia elsewhere in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, being traded along the Silk Road to southwest Asia and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

.Flora of China
''Salix babylonica''
/ref>

Description

''Salix babylonica'' is a medium- to large-sized

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

tree, growing up to tall. It grows rapidly, but has a short lifespan, between 40 and 75 years. The shoots are yellowish-brown, with small buds. The leaves are alternate and spirally arranged, narrow, light green, long and broad, with finely serrate margins and long

acuminate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular ...

tips; they turn a gold-yellow in autumn. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are arranged in catkins produced early in the spring; it is dioecious, with the male and female catkins on separate trees.Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan . File:Saule pleureur chaton.jpg, Male flowers of ''Salix babylonica'' Image:Willow Salix babylonica.jpg, Pendulous

branchlet {{Short pages monitor

Early Chinese

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

selections include the original weeping willow, ''Salix babylonica'' 'Pendula', in which the branches and twigs are strongly pendulous, which was presumably spread along ancient

trade route A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over bodies of water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a sing ...

s. These distinctive trees were subsequently introduced into

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

from Aleppo in northern Syria in 1730, and have rapidly become

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

, growing well along rivers and in parks. These plants are all females, readily propagated

vegetatively Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or spec ...

, and capable of hybridizing with various other kinds of willows, but not breeding true from seed. This type of tree is grown very easily through

plant propagation Plant propagation is the process by which new plants grow from a variety of sources: seeds, cuttings, and other plant parts. Plant propagation can also refer to the man-made or natural dispersal of seeds. Propagation typically occurs as a step i ...

. Two cultivated hybrids between pendulous ''Salix babylonica'' and other species of ''Salix'' willows also have pendulous branchlets, and are more commonly planted than ''S. babylonica'' itself: * ''Salix'' × ''pendulina'', a hybrid with ''S. babylonica'' accepted as the female parent, but with the male parent unidentified, probably being either ''S. euxina'' or ''S''. × ''fragilis'', but perhaps '' S. pentandra''. Of these possibilities, ''S''. × ''fragilis'' is itself a hybrid, with ''S. alba'' and ''S. euxina'' as parental species. * ''Salix'' × ''sepulcralis'', is a hybrid between '' S. alba'' and ''S. babylonica''. Cultivars derived from either of these hybrids are generally better adapted than ''S. babylonica'' to the more humid climates of most heavily populated regions of Europe and North America.

Relation to ''Salix matsudana''

A similar willow species also native to northern China, ''Salix matsudana'' (Chinese willow), is now included in ''Salix babylonica'' as a synonym by many botanists, including the Russian willow expert Alexey Skvortsov. The only reported difference between the two species is ''S. matsudana'' has two nectaries in each female flower, whereas ''S. babylonica'' has only one; however, this character is variable in many willows (for example, crack willow, ''Salix'' × ''fragilis'', can have either one or two), so even this difference may not be taxonomically significant.Bean, W. J. (1980). ''Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles'' 8th ed., vol. 6. John Murray . A horticultural variant with twisted twigs and trunk, the corkscrew willow (''S. matsudana'' var. ''tortuosa''), is widely planted.

Cultivation

''Salix babylonica'', especially its pendulous-branched ("weeping") form, has been introduced into many other areas, including

and the southeastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, but beyond China, it has not generally been as successfully cultivated as some of its hybrid derivatives, being sensitive to late-spring frosts. In the more humid

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

s of much of

and eastern North America, it is susceptible to a canker disease, willow anthracnose ('' Marssonina salicicola''), which makes infected trees very short-lived and unsightly.Meikle, R. D. (1984). ''Willows and Poplars of Great Britain and Ireland''. BSBI Handbook No. 4. .

Cultivars

''Salix babylonica'' (Babylon willow) has many cultivars, including: * 'Babylon' (synonym: 'Napoleon') is the most widely grown cultivar of ''S. babylonica'', with its typical weeping branches.Santamour, F.S. & McArdle, A.J. (1988). Cultivars of Salix babylonica and other Weeping Willows. Journal of Arboriculture 14: 180-184 * 'Crispa' (synonym: 'Annularis') is a mutant of 'Babylon', with spirally curled leaves. Various cultivars of ''Salix matsudana'' (Chinese willow) are now often included within ''Salix babylonica'', treated more broadly, including: * 'Pendula' is one of the best weeping trees, with a silvery shine, hardier, and more disease resistant. * 'Tortuosa' is an upright tree with twisted and contorted branches, marketed as corkscrew willow. Yet other weeping willow cultivars are derived from interspecific ''Salix'' hybrids, including ''S. babylonica'' in their parentage. The most widely grown weeping willow cultivar is ''Salix × sepulcralis'' 'Chrysocoma', with bright yellowish branchlets.

Uses

Peking willow is a popular ornamental tree in northern China, and is also grown for

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

production and

shelterbelts A windbreak (shelterbelt) is a planting usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted in hedgerows around the edge ...

there, being particularly important around the oases of the Gobi Desert, protecting agricultural land from desert winds.

Origin

The epithet ''babylonica'' in this Chinese species' scientific name (''S. babylonica''), as well as the related common names "Babylon willow" or "Babylon weeping willow", derive from a misunderstanding by

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

that this willow was the tree described in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

in the opening of

Psalm 137 Psalm 137 is the 137th psalm of the Book of Psalms in the Tanakh. In English it is generally known as "By the rivers of Babylon", which is how its first words are translated in the King James Version of the Bible. Its Latin title is "Super flum ...

(here in Latin and English translations): * From the

Clementine Vulgate The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate () is the edition promulgated in 1592 by Pope Clement VIII of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome. It was the second edition of the ...

(Latin, 1592): ::

Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus et flevimus, cum recordaremur Sion. :::In salicibus in medio ejus suspendimus organa nostra....

:Here, ''"salicibus"'' is the dative plural of the Latin noun ''salix'', the willows, used by Linnaeus as the name for the willow genus ''Salix''.
* From the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

(English, 1611): ::

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. :::We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

* From the Revised Standard Version (English, 1952): ::

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion :::On the willows there we hung up our lyres....

Despite these Biblical references to "willows", whether in Latin or English, the trees growing in Babylon along the Euphrates River in ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

(modern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

) and named ''gharab'' in early

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, are not willows (''

Salix Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

'') in either the modern or the classical sense, but the Euphrates poplar (''

Populus euphratica ''Populus euphratica'', commonly known as the Euphrates poplar, desert poplar, diversiform-leaved poplar, or poplar diversifolia, is a species of poplar tree in the willow family. Description The Euphrates poplar is a medium-sized deciduous ...

''), with willow-like leaves on long, drooping shoots, in the related

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Populus''. Both ''Populus'' and ''Salix'' are in the plant family

Salicaceae The Salicaceae is the willow family of flowering plants. The traditional family (Salicaceae ''sensu stricto'') included the willows, poplar, aspen, and cottonwoods. Genetic studies summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) have greatly ...

, the willow family. These Babylonian trees are correctly called poplars, not willows, in the New International Version of the ''Bible'' (English, 1978): ::

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion :::There on the poplars we hung our harps.

Explanatory notes

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q156307 babylonica Flora of China Garden plants of Asia Ornamental trees Phytoremediation plants Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Trees of China Weeping trees