White willow

Salix alba

Salicaceae

Riverside tree whose bitter bark is the folk parent of aspirin, used for dull inflammatory pain.

Herbal bark. Aspirin is the refined descendant — not interchangeable in dose.

Parts used: Young bark
Traditional notes: Headache · Low back and joint ache · Feverish aches
Grow · USDA 6b: Tree, USDA 2–8. Loves water. Hardwood cuttings root in a bucket of water. Easy. In work: Mar · Apr · May
Harvest: Young twigs in spring; peel bark from prunings, never girdle a trunk.

A tree, not a herb bed. Harvest bark from prunings, never a girdle.
Wet feet. Willows want a ditch or a rain garden.
Younger twigs have more bark relative to wood.

Safety

Aspirin allergy Children and teens with viral illness Active ulcer Third-trimester pregnancy

Lore

Hippocrates chewed the bark; the 19th century found salicin in it and then invented aspirin, which is the same idea with the gut-bleeding turned up. The tree likes wet feet. The tea is bitter in the way a clinic is bitter.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.