Salix babylonica L., Salicaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Threat only at high elevations?  yes

Risk assessment results:  High risk, score: 9 (Go to the risk assessment)

Common name(s): [more details]

English: Babylon weeping willow, weeping willow

French: saule de Babylone, saule pleureur

Spanish: sauce de Babilonia, sauce llorón

Tongan: hakoloa‘ani, uilow

Habit:  tree

Description:  "Large spreading tree to c. 30 m high; bark fissured, grey.  Smaller branches, branchlets and shoots long, slender, pendulous.  Shoots green or brownish green, rather brittle.  Shoots and leaves with appressed hairs, soon glabrous.  Buds very small, soon glabrous.  Petiole 5-8 mm long.  Lamina 6-13 x 1-2 cm, narrow-lanceolate, glaucescent or glaucous below, slightly shining above, rather remotely serrulate; apex long-acuminate.  Leaves subtending catkins generally c. 3 x c. 0.8-1 cm; apex acute or short-acuminate.  Stipules on long shoots with curved apices.  Catkins female, appearing with an after leaves on short leafy shoots, 1.5-3 cm long, narrow-cylindric, often curved; rachis villous.  Bracts 2-2.5 mm long, narrow-triangular or lanceolate-oblong, green; margin not incurved; apex acute.  Gland 1, 0.5-0.6 mm diameter, broadly rectangular or almost square, sometimes 2-lobed.  Ovary sessile, glabrous" (Webb et al., 1988; p. 1166).

Habitat/ecology:  In Fiji, "occasionally cultivated...near sea level and infrequently naturalized at elevations up to 150 m on sand and shingle in the open at edges of creeks"  (Smith, 1981; pp. 713-714).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Asia; widespread in cultivation (Smith, 1981; pp. 713-714).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Fiji Fiji Islands	Viti Levu Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1981) (pp. 713-714) Voucher cited: Greenwood 1191
French Polynesia Society Islands	Huahine Island	introduced cultivated	Welsh, S. L. (1998) (p. 257) Voucher cited: N. Kraus 1659
French Polynesia Society Islands	Raiatea (Havai) Island	introduced cultivated	Welsh, S. L. (1998) (p. 257) Voucher cited: Moore 206
French Polynesia Society Islands	Taha‘a Island	introduced cultivated	Welsh, S. L. (1998) (p. 257) Voucher cited: Fosberg 63557
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R. (1997) (p. 136)
Guam Guam Island	Guam Island	introduced	Raulerson, L. (2006) (p. 30)
New Caledonia New Caledonia Archipelago	Île Grande Terre	introduced cultivated	MacKee, H. S. (1994) (p. 126) Voucher cited: MacKee 18114
Niue Niue	Niue Island	introduced cultivated	Sykes, W. R. (1970) (p. 184) Voucher cited: CHR 168693
Tonga Tonga Islands	Tonga Islands	introduced cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1981) (pp. 713-714)
Tonga Tongatapu Group	Tongatapu Island	introduced cultivated	Yuncker, T. G. (1959) (p. 95) Vouchers cited: Hürlimann 300, Yuncker 15207

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	Australia (continental)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007) Naturalized
China China	China (People's Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
New Zealand New Zealand	New Zealand (country)	introduced invasive cultivated	Webb, C. J./Sykes, W. R./Garnock-Jones, P. J. (1988) (p. 1166) "Moist places near still or flowing water".

Comments:  Sykes (1970; p. 184) found a single tree growing on Niue. Not noted in later surveys.

Additional information:  Photos and additional information at the Environment Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, web site of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

Additional online information about Salix babylonica is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Taxonomic information about Salix babylonica may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Fosberg, F. R. 1997. Preliminary checklist of the flowering plants and ferns of the Society Islands. Ed. by David R. Stoddart. U. Cal. Berkeley.

MacKee, H. S. 1994. Catalogue des plantes introduites et cultivées en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 164 p.

Raulerson, L. 2006. Checklist of Plants of the Mariana Islands. University of Guam Herbarium Contribution 40:1-69. .

Smith, Albert C. 1981. Flora Vitiensis nova: a new flora of Fiji. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii. Volume 2. 810 pp.

Sykes, W. R. 1970. Contributions to the flora of Niue. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Bulletin 200, Wellington. 321 pp.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2007. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

Webb, C. J./Sykes, W. R./Garnock-Jones, P. J. 1988. Flora of New Zealand, Volume IV: Naturalised pteridophytes, gymnosperms, dicotyledons. Botany Division, DSIR, Christchurch. 1365 pp.

Welsh, S. L. 1998. Flora Societensis: A summary revision of the flowering plants of the Society Islands. E.P.S. Inc., Orem, Utah. 420 pp.

Yuncker, T. G. 1959. Plants of Tonga. Bishop Museum Bull. 220. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu. 343 pp.