Salix babylonica is a species of willow native to dry areas of northern China, but cultivated for millennia elsewhere in Asia, being traded along the Silk Road to southwest Asia and Europe.
Salix babylonica
Male flowers of Salix babylonica
Pendulous branchlets of Salix babylonica
Bark of Salix babylonica
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus Salix, comprise around 350 species of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions.
Willow
At the base of the petiole a pair of stipules form. These may fall in spring, or last for much of the summer or even for more than one year (marcescence).
Young male catkin
Pollard willow and woodpile in the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen, Ghent, Belgium