Unpretentious willows are a modest and useful gift of nature to man. Many species, united in a family with the Latin name Salix (literal translation - "close to water"), gave numerous names to these deciduous trees: willow, willow, willow, willow, vine, bredina, sheluga, broom and broom, red, black and more many other. Shrub varieties grow in Siberia and Central Asia. Usually they are called willow. In the conditions of the prolar north and highlands, dwarf willows grow. These are varieties 2.5 cm high, creeping along the ground. In good natural conditions (a spacious, lighted place, soil of moderate moisture, light loamy or sandy loam), the height of the trunk is 25 m with a cross-sectional diameter of 1.5 m. In Astrakhan, instead of a tree, they generally say willow. In Russia, free-standing mighty trees are called willow, willow, willow.
Tree - what is it?
Most often called white willow. The crown of the trees is transparent-lace: in young trees it is columnar, incentenarians - sprawling spherical. The bark on the trunks and central branches directed upwards is gray, indented with wide and spongy furrows-wrinkles. Lateral branches are thin and long, they fall down. Their bark is light green. The leaves are lanceolate on short petioles, smooth green above, dull silky silver-green below. Willow is a dioecious plant: there are female and male trees that differ in nondescript flowers.
Where I was born, there I fit in
Vetla - a tree with excellent survival and fast growing. Where it is necessary to stop the destructive process of gully formation, they resort to planting cuttings, stakes of this plant. In those areas where there are no forests, willows are a building material (beams, boards) that you can grow yourself on your site quite quickly. After 40 years, young slender willows are suitable for sawing. Willow wood is a soft, pliable, elastic material, slightly inferior to linden in its qualities. Arcs, hoops are bent from the willow, decks are hammered. Wattle fences are made from stakes and rods - fences in the countryside. Not only baskets are woven from thin branches. In the hands of craftsmen, a flexible vine turns into fashionable and beautiful furniture. The bark of the branches is needed in the leather industry for tanning leather and dyeing it. Willow (branches, bark, flowers) is used in folk medicine. Salicylic acid was first obtained from the bark. Flowering trees attract bees with nectar. Vetla - material for the landscape of city parks. Bark, twigs and leaves are goats' favorite food.
Tellings of antiquity
Vetla (willow, willow) is known all over the world. Orthodox Christians in Russia know Palm Sunday, celebrated a week before the Resurrection of Christ. The church consecrates willow branches (willows). In the old days, such a branch was used to drive cattle for grazing on Yegoriev's Day in May. In the horoscope of the Druids, the first decade of March and the September period from the 3rd to the 12th are assigned to people born under the sign of "Willow". There are many sayings, proverbs, but more often they mention willow, most likely for rhyme. The same applies to the willow. As you know, this is the same tree, called differently.
