Salix alba
Bannweid
Silberweide
Silver Willow
Saule argenté
Saule blanc

Size:
Silver willow can grow up to 25 m tall, with often short or crooked trunks and deeply fissured bark on older trees.

Leaf: 
The leaf is narrowly lanceolate, up to 10 cm long and silvery-hairy underneath.

Flower/Fruit: 
Willows are dioecious, so there are trees with only male flowers and those with only female flowers. The catkins appear during leaf budding and are good bee pasture.

Wood:
Willow wood is spongy and very brittle. However, the young twigs are very flexible and can be used to build wattle and fascines (for slope stabilization).

Trivia/Use: 
The silver willow is very fast-growing and has a high light requirement. It is an ideal soil stabilizer because it has a fine root system and strikes out very well. It loves moist and deep soils. It is known as the most commonly pollarded willow. In residential areas, the hanging form of the silver willow, the weeping willow, is often found. Its branches hang down almost vertically.