About this Goat Willow

Regarded a weed by foresters, the goat willow is actually one of our most valuable trees for wildlife.

Willows trees are either male or female. The tight furry clusters of male flowers are the ‘pussy willows’. More than a dozen species of willow occur in Scotland, from dwarf mountain species to large lowland trees.

Willow is a source of salicin, a compound chemically close to the painkiller Aspirin. The physician Hippocrates wrote of the medicinal benefits of willow bark and leaves in the 5th century BC.

(Image by Gavin Harris)

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