14 Jan Willow
Salix cinerea, Salix nigra & other Salix spp.
Introduced to Australia to help stabilise creek banks and roadsides, willows are now actively displacing native riparian vegetation, altering creek flows and destroying habitat. Potential invaders of wetlands.
Family: Salicaceae
Origin: Eurasia, North Africa, North America
Habit: Rapidly growing deciduous trees 10 to 20 m some with single trunks, others multi-stemmed, end branches shiny and reddish, very pliable.
Leaves: Can be droopy or not, shiny green on both sides, narrow and serrated.
Flowers: Spikes (‘catkins’) appear in spring. Plants male or female.
Fruit: Tiny seeds
Roots: Extensive lateral root system. Can re-shoot from broken bits.
Dispersal: Wind dispersed seed. Sometimes branches on ground sucker.
Control: Stem injection of each aerial trunk with small seedlings up to 1 metre able to be hand pulled
