Salix - Willow

Latin plant name Salix Common plant name Willow Plant type Tree Size (meters) <5-15 m Distinguishing features Found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. They came to Ireland right after the melting of the ice age thanks to their light seeds that can be blown by the wind, along with the grasses and the beerchs. Willows all have abundant watery bark sap, which is heavily charged with salicylic acid, soft usually pliant tough wood, slender branches and large fibrous often stoloniferous roots. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and tenacity to life, and roots readily grow from aerial parts of the plant. The leaves are typically elongated, but may also be round to oval, frequently with a serrated margin. Most species are deciduous; semievergreen willows. Willows are dioecious, with male and female flowers appearing as catkins on different plants; the catkins are produced early in the spring, often before the leaves, or as the new leaves open. Basic crafts, such as baskets, fish traps, wattle fences and wattle and daub, house walls, were often woven from osiers. Willow wood is also used in the manufacture of boxes, brooms, cricket bats (grown from certain strains of white willow), cradle boards, chairs and other furniture, dolls, flutes, poles, sweat lodges, toys, turnery, tool handles, veneer, wands and whistles.

Cotoneaster

Latin plant name Cotoneaster Common plant name Cotoneaster Plant type Semievergreen woody shrub Size (meters) < 5 m Distinguishing features The leaves are arranged alternately, 0.5–15 centimetres (0.20–5.9 in) long, ovate to lanceolate, entire; both evergreen and deciduous species occur. The flower is either fully open or has its five petals half open 5–10 millimetres (0.20–0.39 in) diameter. They may be any shade from white through creamy white to light pink to dark pink to almost red, The fruit is a small pome 5–12 millimetres diameter, pink or bright red, orange or even maroon or black when mature, containing one to three seeds. Fruit on some species stays on until the following year. The flowers attract bees and butterflies and the fruits are eaten by birds. They are used as a valuable source of nectar when often the bees have little other forage in the June Gap. The red berries are also highly attractive to blackbirds and other thrushes.

Hypericum hidcote

Latin plant name Hypericum hidcote Common plant name St. John's wort Plant type Woody semievergreen shrub Size (meters) < 2 m Distinguishing features Lovely yellow flower 2 inches diameter.

Dahlia

Latin plant name Dahlia Common plant name Plant type Semievergreen bulbous herbaceous flowering plant  Size (meters) < 1 m Distinguishing features The flowers can have different colours and shapes. They do not have scent. Like most plants that do not attract pollinating insects through scent, they are brightly colored, displaying most hues, with the exception of blue. They are the official flower of Mexico. In the first trips of Hernán Cortés to Mexico, he reported they were used for a food source by the indigenous peoples, and were both gathered in the wild and cultivated. The Aztecs used them to treat epilepsy and employed the long hollow stem of the (Dahlia imperalis) for water pipes.

Potentilla fruticosa

Latin plant name Potentilla (dasiphora) fruticosa Common plant name Plant type Woody semievergreen shrub Size (meters) < 2,5 m Distinguishing features Yellow flowers and small leaves. The flowers are always small, flat, and round, but there are many dozens on each bush. It is very often used by cities and businesses for landscaping because of its hardiness and low maintenance. It gets leggy when it is old.