Forestry

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Willows in the service of man – Ken Stott OBE.

This article was a huge inspiration for the Wondertree project. It is a scholarly piece that looks at the many uses of the genus Salix.

Reproduced with kind permission from the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Willows: Plant Profile – Kevin Lindegaard

101 things to do with willows

There are perhaps grander trees than willows and certainly many others with superior timber. But with willows you get a bit of everything. The usefulness of willows owes a great deal to their long, straight, slender, supple but strong shoots which make them perfect for basketry, weaving and other traditional crafts. Many activities such as living sculptures and screens would be impossible but for their ability to grow from cuttings and to produce rapid growth following the seemingly brutal cutting back as coppice and pollards.

What makes a Wonder Tree?

With willows it is the blend of beauty, diversity, adaptability, but above all usefulness whichmarksthem aside from many other temperate trees.

You can’t deny the tremendous virtues of oak and beech but when you plant these trees you are growing them for the future. With willow, you can watch a tree mature to full size within your own life time, or alternatively you can cut it down every year and it will produce new shoots that can be used as the raw material for any number of useful products and activities.

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