Willow (willow, vine, willow, willow) is a woody plant common in Eurasia and North America. Most species prefer moisture and settle in damp places. The wood is used for handicrafts, baskets are woven from the branches.
Instructions
Step 1
The appearance of willows is very diverse, each subspecies has its own characteristics. Many are decorative, such as the weeping willow. In the mountains, dwarfs grow, the height of which does not exceed 20 cm. About 120 species of trees, shrubs and dwarf shrubs of the willow family grow in Russia. Most often these are tall trees, up to 15 m, with a thin, no more than 0.5 m in diameter, flexible trunk. Some species have dense, curly green foliage, others have gray-green or silvery foliage.
Step 2
The types also differ in the shape of the leaf plate: most of them are narrow-leaved with jagged edges. But there are trees with wide elliptical foliage. The trunk is branchy, twig-like with purple (reddish), green, gray bark. Some willows bloom early, before foliage appears. The flowers are small, collected in fluffy inflorescences-earrings, a well-known representative of early-flowering willows.
Step 3
Ornamental plants are planted in gardens, parks, squares. White or silver willow, better known as willow, is widely used in landscaping. Tall, with a spherical crown and silvery leaves on hanging branches, the tree can become a decoration of any park. Whole-leaved willow is distinguished by an extraordinary pink color of the leaves. Prefers moist soils.
Step 4
Rosemary willow is grown as a living fence. A two-meter tree forms a dense picturesque wall. Woolly or shaggy willow - a short tree - ideal for planting near the porch, in flower beds. Willow reticulated - a dwarf creeping plant, height no more than 30 cm, grown as a border. Willow Matsudana has an exotic look - the branches are bizarrely curved, the leaves are twisted in spirals, thermophilic, it grows in the southern regions. Sakhalin willow - frost-hardy, with bizarre branches, in Germany it is called "Dragon tree".
Step 5
In their natural environment, willows live along the banks of reservoirs, in former channels, ditches, on swampy soils. Thanks to its powerful root system, the plant serves to anchor the banks of rivers and ditches. The geography of growth is extensive, willow is found everywhere, even in the tundra and mountains of Central Asia. In the highlands of the Pamirs, trees do not grow and only narrow strips stretch along the rivers. Willow thickets are common in the temperate zone, half of the species grow in Russia. White willow is widespread in the floodplains of the rivers Rhine, Danube, Elbe. In Polish deciduous forests, rakita is found as undergrowth. In the Czech Republic, in the regions of the Morava and Vltava rivers, there are vast poplar-willow forests.
