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Scientific Name
Synonyms
Family
Common Names
Origin
Cultivation
Naturalised Distribution
Habitat
Habit
Distinguishing Features
Stems and Leaves
Flowers and Fruit
Reproduction and Dispersal
Environmental Impact
Legislation
Management
Similar Species
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Click on images to enlarge

habit (Photo: Trevor James)

habit (Photo: Rob and Fiona Richardson)

rough, deeply-fissured, bark on older tree (Photo: Trevor James)

younger leaves (Photo: Trevor James)

twig with elongated leaves (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of toothed leaf margin (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of leaf underside (Photo: Trevor James)

male flower clusters (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of young flower cluster developing at the end of a short leafy side-branch (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of male flowers (Photo: Trevor James)

the branched flower clusters of Salix fragilis var. furcata (Photo: Trevor James)

Salix fragilis

Scientific Name

Salix fragilis L.

Synonyms

Salix fragilis L. var. fragilis
Salix fragilis L. var. furcata Gaudin

Family

Salicaceae

Common Names

basket willow, brittle willow, crack willow, fragile willow

Origin

This species is thought to be native to most southern and central Europe (i.e. France, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Ukraine and western Russia) and western Asia (i.e. Turkey). However, its exact native is uncertain due to confusion with Salix x rubens.

Cultivation

Crack willow (Salix fragilis) has been widely planted around waterbodies and along waterways in the temperate regions of Australia, mainly to prevent soil erosion.

Naturalised Distribution

Widely naturalised in south-eastern Australia (i.e. in eastern New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and Tasmania).

Also naturalised overseas in southern Africa, New Zealand, and North America (i.e. the USA and Canada).

Habitat

A weed of waterways, riparian vegetation, lake edges, billabongs, swamps and wetlands in wetter temperate regions.

Habit

An upright (i.e. erect) and spreading tree that loses it leaves during winter (i.e. it is deciduous). It has one or more trunks usually growing up to 18 m tall, or rarely reaching up to 25 m in height.

Distinguishing Features

Stems and Leaves

The older stems are covered in a pale greyish-brown to dark brown coloured bark that eventually becomes rough and deeply fissured. The younger stems are dark greenish-brown in colour and usually held in an upright position (i.e. erect). They are initially sparsely hairy, but soon become hairless (i.e. glabrescent). These stems are brittle at the point of attachment, and readily become detatched.

The leaves are alternately arranged along the stems and borne on short stalks (i.e. petioles). These leaves (8-17.5 cm long and 1.5-4.0 cm wide) are elongated in shape (i.e. lanceolate or narrowly-ovate) with irregularly-toothed margins and pointed tips (i.e. acute apices). Their upper surfaces are dark green and hairless (i.e. glabrous) while their undersides are paler green or bluish-white in colour (i.e. glaucous) and soon become hairless (i.e. glabrescent).

Flowers and Fruit

Separate male and female flowers are borne on separate plants, with most plants in Australia being male. These inconspicuous flowers are arranged in elongated clusters (i.e. catkins) that are produced at the tips of very short side-branches. Both types of flowers lack petals and sepals, and each flower is subtended by a small bract. The male flowers are greenish-yellow in colour and arranged in relatively broad clusters (4-7 cm long and 10-13 mm wide). The much less common female flowers are greenish in colour and arranged in narrower clusters (5.5-8 cm long and about 7 mm wide). The flowers are produced with the new leaves in early spring.

The small capsules (4-5 mm long) contain tiny seeds, each of which is topped with a tuft of silky hairs.

Reproduction and Dispersal

This species reproduces by seed and vegetatively via the rooting of detached twigs or branches.

The light and fluffy seeds are easily dispersed by wind and water. The twigs readily detach where they join to the branches and may be spread during floods, by machinery, during removal, and in dumped garden waste.

Environmental Impact

Crack willow (Salix fragilis) is regarded as an environmental weed in Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania and New South Wales. It is one of the willows that, as a group, are regarded as a Weed of National Significance (WoNS). These species are primarily of concern along waterways, in wetlands and around other waterbodies. They compete strongly for space, water and nutrients, eventually displacing the native vegetation in the habitats they invade.

Crack willow (Salix fragilis) is actively managed by community groups in Tasmania. It also freely hybridises with related species, especially golden willow (Salix alba var. vitellina), with the resulting hybrids sometimes being even more invasive (e.g. Salix x rubens).

For more on the environmental impact of willows (Salix spp.) in Australia, see Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment Landcare Note entitled "Willows along watercourses: their impact compared to natives", which is avialable online at http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au.

Legislation

This species is declared under legislation in the following states and territories:

Management

For information on the management of this species see the following resources:

Similar Species

Two forms of Salix fragilis are present in Australia (i.e. the much more common Salix fragilis var. fragilis and the less common Salix fragilis var. furcata), but these are not always recognised as being separate entities. They can be distinguished from each other by the followng differences:

Crack willow (Salix fragilis) is also confused with some of the other willows (Salix spp.) with tree-like habits, and hybrids between this and other species can be extremely difficult to separate from each other. To distinguish between these, see one of the texts specifically developed for the identification of willows (Salix spp.) in Australia: