With over 300 species worldwide, willows show huge variation in their size. In the high arctic, you’ll find willows that are just a few inches tall at full maturity. In our eastern forests, the largest species, the black willow, can grow up to 60 feet high.
Their scientific name, Salix, comes from the Celtic word meaning "near water," which is apt, since we find them near stream and riversides.
Probably the most famous of the group are the weeping willows, named for the branches and foliage that droops from their crown to the ground. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus gave them the scientific name of Salix babylonica.
Why Babylon? Well, due to a mistranslation, Linnaeus mistakenly believed that weeping willows were the willows of Babylon described in Psalm 137 in the Bible — the trees where Hebrew slaves wept for Zion. Instead, the true weeping willow originated in China. The biblical willow was actually the Euphrates poplar, a relative of our cottonwood tree.
And willows have medicinal uses: For thousands of years, Egyptians, Greeks, and Native Americans used the extracts of willow bark to soothe aches and pains. The active ingredient in the bark? Salicin, the chemical that was developed into aspirin in 1899, and is now the most commonly used drug in the world.
But, even without its history and the healing properties of its chemicals, just sitting under a willow tree soothes and calms us when we need it most.
