Salix Sepulcralis Group 'Chrysocoma'
Encyclopedia
Salix 'Chrysocoma' , or Weeping Golden Willow, a member of the Salix Sepulcralis Group
, is the most popular and widely grown weeping tree
in the warm temperate regions of the world. It is an artificial hybrid between S. alba 'Vitellina-Tristis' and S. babylonica 'Babylon'. The first parent provides the frost hardiness and the golden shoots and the second parent the stong weeping habit.
This cross was originally made at the Späth Nursery (Berlin, Germany) and was first mentioned in their 1888 nursery catalogue as S. vitellina pendula nova.
Being a cultivar from the Chrysocoma Group, which includes all crosses between S. alba and S. babylonica, it is much hardier and more long-lived than the Babylon Willow (Salix babylonica). This particular cultivar is easily distinguished from the other Golden Weeping Willow (S. alba 'Vitellina-Tristis, synonym: 'Tristis') by its androgynous catkins.
Salix Sepulcralis Group
The Salix Sepulcralis Group is a cultivar Group containing all cultivars of hybrids between Salix alba and Salix babylonica. It was first described by L. Simonkai in 1890 from trees growing in Hungary. The Group contains both weeping and non-weeping cultivars though the best known of its cultivars...
, is the most popular and widely grown weeping tree
Weeping tree
right|thumb|| 250 px|Weeping Atlas CedarWeeping trees are trees that are characterized by a typical shape with soft, limp twigs This may lead to a bent crown and pendulous branches that can cascade to the ground. While weepingness occurs in nature, most weeping trees are cultivars...
in the warm temperate regions of the world. It is an artificial hybrid between S. alba 'Vitellina-Tristis' and S. babylonica 'Babylon'. The first parent provides the frost hardiness and the golden shoots and the second parent the stong weeping habit.
This cross was originally made at the Späth Nursery (Berlin, Germany) and was first mentioned in their 1888 nursery catalogue as S. vitellina pendula nova.
Being a cultivar from the Chrysocoma Group, which includes all crosses between S. alba and S. babylonica, it is much hardier and more long-lived than the Babylon Willow (Salix babylonica). This particular cultivar is easily distinguished from the other Golden Weeping Willow (S. alba 'Vitellina-Tristis, synonym: 'Tristis') by its androgynous catkins.
Description
A weeping tree, not much more than 12m high. Bark greyish-brown, deeply fissured. Twigs very slender, at first thinly subadpressed pubescent, soon becoming glabrous. Golden- or greenish-yellow in their first year, later becoming olive-green. Catkins appearing with the leaves in April, terminal on very short, spreading, leafy, lateral shoots, peduncle and rhachis softly villose. Catkins male, female or most commonly androgynous.Synonymy
- Salix alba 'Vitellina Pendula'
- Salix babylonica 'Ramulis Aureis'
- Salix × chrysocoma Dode, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 55: 655 (1908 publ. 1909).
- Salix × sepulcralis nothovar. chrysocoma (Dode) Meikle, Watsonia 15: 274 (1985).
- Salix × sepulcralis 'Chrysocoma'.
- Salix vitellina pendula Späth, Cat. (1888).
- [Salix alba 'Tristis'] This name is often misapplied to this cultivar.