Salix brachycarpa
Nutt.
Barren-ground Willow
(c) Terry M, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Terry M
(c) Wasyl Bakowsky, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Wasyl Bakowsky
(c) Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Trevor Van Loon
What to Eat
Edible parts: Inner bark, Leaves
The inner bark can be eaten raw or cooked, or dried and ground into a powder to blend with cereal flour for bread-making. It has a very bitter flavour and is considered a famine food, used only when all else fails. Young shoots are edible but not very palatable.
Where to Find It
It is a temperate plant.
Canada, North America, USA,
How to Identify
A deciduous shrub reaching 1.4 m tall, hardy to UK zone 4 and frost-resistant. Dioecious requiring both sexes for seed production; bee-pollinated. Grows in light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils at mildly acidic to neutral pH. Cannot grow in shade and requires moist or wet soil. Tolerates maritime exposure.
How to Grow
Succeeds in most soils, including wet, ill-drained or intermittently flooded soils, but prefers a damp, heavy soil in a sunny position. Rarely thrives on chalk. Very tolerant of maritime exposure. Hybridizes freely with other members of this genus. Although the flowers are produced in catkins early in the year, they are pollinated by bees and other insects rather than by the wind. Plants in this genus are notably susceptible to honey fungus. Dioecious. Male and female plants must be grown if seed is required.
Propagation: Seed must be surface sown as soon as it ripens in late spring, as viability is very short — perhaps only a few days. Cuttings of mature wood from the current year's growth can be taken November to February, either in a sheltered outdoor bed or planted straight into their permanent position with a weed-suppressing mulch; these root very easily. Plant out permanently in autumn. Half-ripe cuttings taken June to August in a frame also root very easily.
Medicinal Uses
The fresh bark contains salicin, which probably decomposes into salicylic acid (closely related to aspirin) in the human body, and is used as an anodyne and febrifuge.
Other Uses
This salt-tolerant coastal plant can be included in shelterbelt plantings. It also functions as a dynamic accumulator.
Wikipedia
Source ↗Salix brachycarpa is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common names barren-ground willow, small-fruit willow and shortfruit willow.
Notes
There are about 300 Salix species.
References (2)
- N. Amer. Sylva 1:69. 1842
- Plants for a Future database, The Field, Penpol, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0NG, UK. http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
