Árbol sauce

GREY WILLOW

Salix atrocinerea

Gatell (Catalan) | Salgueiro negro (Galician) | Salgueiro-preto (Portuguese) | Sauce (Spanish) | Saule roux (French)


This small tree can reach a height of 12 m, although it is sometimes seen more as a bushy shrub.

The leaves are deciduous, simple, alternating, oblong-lanceolate, 2-10 cm long and 1-2 cm wide, an even edge or finely serrated. The leaves are smooth on the upper surface and covered in hair on the underside.

The flowers bud early in spring on large filaments called catkins and considered a good melliferous (honey producing) plant.

The fruit of the grey willow are capsules that open once ripened, releasing seeds wrapped in a cottony covering, favouring their wind dispersion.

The trees are typically found in brooks, torrents, watercourses, pools and waterlogged ground near streams and springs. They grow best in acidic soils and are found from sea level up to an altitude of 2000 m.

The willow being commonly found throughout the Peninsula, is used extensively. It is used in basketry (distinct from wicker that are interwoven sticks or fine and long branches), making strips from its wood, being soft and pliable, as well as being apt for small, carved or turned pieces such as bowls, jars, cups, cutlery, whistles etc.

In addition, the branches were used to locate underground sources in the practice of water dowsers, an activity in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula that corresponded to the ancestral practice of water searching known as zahori in spanish.

Salix is the Roman name for willow trees; atrocinerea formed from the prefix atro (dark) and cinérea, originating from cinereus, meaning ashen or dark ash-coloured due to the dark, dirty grey colour of the leaves and young branches.

GREY WILLOW characteristics

Discover the different parts of the tree are like

Tronco del sauce

Trunk

Hoja del sauce

Leaf

Flor del sauce

Flower

Fruto del sauce

Fruit

GREY WILLOW flowering

  • JAN
  • FEB
  • MAR
  • APR
  • MAY
  • JUN
  • JUL
  • AUG
  • SEP
  • OCT
  • NOV
  • DEC