Salix purpurea
species of plant
Salix purpurea, known in Britain as purple willow, is a shrub or small tree native to Europe, western Asia and northwest Africa. It has been introduced to many other parts of the world as an ornamental garden plant, and it is widely used in basket making. Within its native range and some places where it is naturalised it is found in wetlands such as lake margins and the floodplains of rivers.
Description
Purple willow is a dioecious shrub or small tree up to about 5 m tall, usually with numerous stems. The bark is greyish and smooth, with a bitter taste. The vegetative parts of the plant are all glabrous. The twigs and young branches are terete and flexible, often yellowish or tinged with purple.
The leaves are - unusually, for a willow - opposite or almost opposite and narrowly oblong in shape, with a pointed tip, ranging from 2 cm to about 10 cm long. In bud, each leaf is covered by a single scale. They are a characteristically dull, pale green when fresh, turning black if the stems are harvested.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Salix purpurea” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Salix, purpurea and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “species of plant” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q39708. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Salix purpurea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.