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Salix babylonica
Also called Weeping Willow, Babylon Weeping Willow, Chinese Weeping Willow, Chinese Willow, Corkscrew Willow, Globe Willow, Tortured Willow
In Singapore: Chinese Weeping Wilow, Napolean's Willow, Dedalu Cina, Weeping Willow, Babylonian Willow, 垂柳 (Grown in Singapore)
Peking willow is a fast-growing deciduous tree with pendulous branches, grown across temperate Asia and widely planted as an ornamental. It needs moist soil, full sun and room to spread, and it is short-lived and prone to disease in humid climates.
Salix babylonica (Babylon willow or weeping willow; Chinese: 垂柳; pinyin: chuí liǔ) is a species of willow native to dry areas of northern China, Korea, Mongolia, Japan, and Siberia but cultivated for millennia elsewhere in Asia, being traded along the Silk Road to southwest Asia and Europe.
Salix babylonica, especially its pendulous-branched ("weeping") form, has been introduced into many other areas, including Europe and the southeastern United States, but beyond China, it has not generally been as successfully cultivated as some of its hybrid derivatives, being sensitive to late-spring frosts. In the more humid climates of much of Europe and eastern North America, it is susceptible to a canker disease, willow anthracnose (Marssonina salicicola), which makes infected trees very short-lived and unsightly.
Peking willow is a popular ornamental tree in northern China, and is also grown for wood production and shelterbelts there, being particularly important around the oases of the Gobi Desert, protecting agricultural land from desert winds.
Siberian Violet Willow · White willow · Salix alpina · Arctic willow · Eared willow · Goat Willow · Pussy willow · Olive Willow · Salix excelsa · Narrowleaf willow · Salix fargesii · Crack Willow
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Salix babylonica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
