Scientific Name: Salix alba Linn.

Comman Name: White Willow

Distribution:

The Sapwood is white and the heartwood is pinkish when first exposed turing light pinkish brown to light brown with age. The wood lustrous(especially the sapwood)with a silvery sheen and becoming dull with age, without characteristic odour or taste, straight or somewhat interlocked grain and medium fine and even-textured.

Structural Features of Wood:

The growth rings are distinct but inconspicuous delineated by a narrow and irregular line of terminal parenchyma and slightly larger vessels at the beginning of the growth ring and smaller at the end of the growth ring. The wood is semi-ring porous. The vessels are small to very small, variable in size, having an average diameter of 129.51u, occur singly or may be sub-divided forming radial rows of 2-3 and are about a 51/mm2 in number. The paratracheal parenchyma is sparse confined to occasional cells. The metatracheal parenchyma is also very sparse, scattered among the fibers. The terminal parenchyma forms a uniseriate irregular line occasionally with paired cells deliminating the growth rings. The rays are fine, very close in cross section about 7/mm and are uniseriate. In tangential section the rays are about 20 cells(362.56 u) in height and 1-11 celled (14 u) in width and are about 46/mm2 in number. The fibers are non-libriform, non-septate and non-gelatinous, rarely aligned in radial rows, more or less angled in outline and having an average length of 1.18 mm, 24.44 u in diameter and 3.88 u wall thickness.