Unobtrusive willows are a humble and useful gift of nature to man. Many species, united in the family with the Latin name Salix (literal translation - "near water"), gave numerous names to these deciduous trees: willow, willow, willow, taika, vine, bredine, nuts, rakita and broom, reddish, black and many other. In Siberia, Central Asia, there are shrub species. Usually they are called a card. In conditions of the polar north and high mountains, dwarf windmills grow. They are 2.5 cm high, creeping along the ground. In good natural conditions (a spacious illuminated place, a soil of moderate moisture, light loamy or sandy loamy), the height of the trunk is 25 m with a diameter of 1.5 m in cross section. In Astrakhan, instead of a tree, there is usually a willow. In Russia separately standing mighty trees are called rakita, willow, willow.
Tree - what is it?
Most often, a willow is called a willow white. The crown of trees is transparent lace: in young trees - a column-shaped, in long-livers - sprawling spherical. The bark on the trunks and central branches directed upward, gray, is cut with wide and labial furrows-wrinkles. The lateral branches are thin and long, they fall down. The bark on them is light green. Leaves lanceolate on short petioles, from above green smooth, from below - matte silky silvery-green. Vetla - the plant is dioecious: there are female and male trees, which differ in unimpressive flowers.
Where was born, there and was handy
Vetla is a tree with excellent habitability and fast-growing. There, where it is necessary to stop the destructive process of ravine formation, resort to planting cuttings, stakes of this plant. In those areas where there are no forests, the canes are the building material (beams, boards), which can be grown on its own site quite quickly. Years through 40 young slender canes are suitable for sawing. Woods are windy - it is a soft, flexible elastic material, its qualities are slightly inferior to a lime tree. Out of the wind, arc bends, hoops, chopping decks. From the stakes and rods do fences - fences in the countryside. Of thin branches, not only baskets are weaving. In the hands of masters the flexible vine turns into fashionable and beautiful furniture. The bark of branches is needed in the leather industry for the tanning of leather, their painting. Vetla (branches, bark, flowers) is used in folk medicine. Salicylic acid was first obtained from the cortex. Flowering trees attract bees with nectar. Vetla - material for the landscape of urban parks. Bark, twigs and leaves are the favorite food of goats.
Traditions of antiquity
Vetla (willow, willow) is known all over the world. Orthodox Christians in Russia know Palm Sunday, celebrated a week before the Resurrection of Christ. The church consecrates the willow branches (willows). Such a branch in the old days drove the cattle to graze in the May Egoryev day. In the horoscope of the Druids, the first decade of March and the September period from 3 to 12 are assigned to people born under the sign of "Willow." There are many sayings, proverbs, but more often they mention verba, most likely for rhyme. The same applies to the willow. As you know, this is the same tree, differently called.