October 22: Willow

The Day of Willows was celebrated in ancient Mesopotamia on this date. It was a woodland festival in honour of the Goddesses Belili and Astarte. Here are 10 things you might not know about willows.

1. Willows belong to the genus Salix, and there are around 400 different types.
2. The type you're most likely to be familiar with is the weeping willow (Salix babylonica). There are also curly or corkscrew willows (Salix matsudana), which have twisted branches. The largest willow is the White willow which can grow to 100 feet/30 metres tall. At the other end of the scale is one of the smallest woody plants in the world, the dwarf willow (Salix herbacea) which rarely exceeds 6 centimetres (2.4 inches) in height, though it spreads widely across the ground.
3. Willows are sometimes called sallows or osiers.
4. They grow fast, as much as 3 metres a year, and they have extensive root systems. Because they can absorb large quantities of Water, willows are often planted in flooded areas or areas which need to be drained. Strong, deep and wide roots also prevent erosion of the soil.
5. Willows are dioecious. which means male and female flowers appear on separate trees. The flowers are catkins, and the male and female ones look so different from each other you'd think the male and female trees are different species. The flowers appear in the spring, often before the leaves do. At one time, poor people ate the flowers, cooking them into a mash.
6. Willow has been used to make things virtually since time immemorial. A fishing net made from willow dates back to 8300 BC. Humans have also used the trees to make baskets, fences and house walls, brooms, Cricket bats, furniture, toys, wands, whistles and charcoal for drawing.
7. In ancient Egypt, willow bark and leaves were used as a remedy for aches and fever. Native Americans used it for pain relief, and Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates wrote about its medicinal properties in the fifth century BC. The sap of the willow bark contains significant amounts of a plant hormone called salicin, which was extracted and turned into a pure form (salicylic acid) by by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, in 1828. In 1897, Felix Hoffmann created a synthetically altered version of it, which was kinder to the digestive system. This new drug was acetylsalicylic acid, later named Aspirin.
8. Willows are easy to grow from cuttings. Legend has it that all the weeping willows in England are descended from one grown from a twig from a parcel tied up with twigs. The parcel was sent from Spain to Lady Suffolk. Alexander Pope asked her for one of the twigs and planted it. The trees don't live very long by tree standards, though. 70 is pretty old for a willow tree, and few live to be over 100.
9. In China, they believe willow can ward off ghosts, and hence they use willow branches to clean their family tombs on Tomb Sweeping Day. The goddess Kwan Yin is often pictured with a vase containing a willow branch beside her. Taoist witches also use a small carving made from willow wood for communicating with the spirits of the dead.
10. In Japanese tradition, the willow is associated with ghosts. It is popularly supposed that a ghost will appear where a willow grows. In English folklore, a willow tree is believed to be quite sinister, capable of uprooting itself and stalking travellers. 

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