Willows: Wild Water Sprouters

by Kevin Strauss

I’ve been noticing area willows bursting their buds and starting to flower in the area. Northwoods willows are some of the first shrubs to burst their buds and flower in the early spring. These shrubs are a diverse and hybridizing family, so it is difficult, even for an expert to identify some plants beyond the genus name of Salix. But they are a relatively easy group of shrubs to identify in the field, with their long, thin pointed leaves and skinny stick-like trunks.

Willows are shrubs that love to get their feet wet. In fact, you won’t find them on dry or sandy ground. But give a willow twig some moist soil and then watch out. A twig or established plant will sprout underground shoots, or stolons, some of them growing as long as four feet per year. But those stolons are not just ordinary roots. They have the ability to sprout new plants in a form of vegetative reproduction. The new plants are genetically identical to the parent plant.

Willows can often establish themselves on sand islands, muddy steam banks and other less-than-idea sites. For years, conservation groups have planted bundles of willow branches on eroding riverbanks to stabilize the soil. And with their propensity to sprout and their intertwining roots, in no time, the eroding riverbank is covered in soil-saving willows.

But soil conservation isn’t the only use for this group of plants. For over two thousand years, herbalists and doctors from ancient Greece to tribal North America, have prescribed the leaves or bark of this plant to treat arthritis or fever. And unlike some herbal treatments, this one actually works. The bark and leaves contain salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin. Actually, according to some reports, the Bayer Company which developed aspirin discovered the compound in willow and aspen leaves and purified it into tablet form about 100 years ago. But if you have to take a pain reliever, and you have a choice, choose aspirin or other commercial products. I know from experience willow and aspen bark is very bitter, a case of the medicine almost being as bad as the disease.

In addition providing some pain relief, willows can also give us a little early springtime in our homes. If you have cabin fever and want to enjoy some spring flowers, cut a twig from a willow and put it in a vase on your kitchen table. After a little while, flowers and leaves will sprout from the branch. Once the flowers and leaves are out on wild willows, stick your willow twig into some wet ground at the edge of a pond or stream. Knowing how easily willow sprouts, that twig will probably grow roots and take off growing on its own.

The Ely Timberjay