Salix triandra / Salice da ceste

Origin: Europe, East Asia

Botanical characteristics: It is a small deciduous tree, which is from 5 to 15 meters high and fast-growing. Branches are young green or red. Bark peels off in plates. Leaves are lanceolate, green and shiny, serrated, and glaucous beneath. It is a dioecious plant with tapered, yellow male catkins and green female ones, occurring on separated plants, in March-April.

Agronomic and environmental characteristics: It grows spontaneously throughout the territory, especially in the Alps, Po Valley and Apennines on moist areas and along the banks of streams, up to 1400 meters above sea level.

Use: It has been cultivated for a long time to create baskets and other artefacts. In the countryside, along ditches, the pruning system often used was the pollarding one. It is used along rivers and is suitable for the consolidation of river banks.