willow-pattern ware, sometimes porcelain but frequently opaque pottery, originated in Staffordshire, England, c.1780. Thomas Minton (see Minton, family), then an apprentice potter, developed and engraved the design, presumably after an old Chinese legend. It portrays the garden of a rich mandarin whose young daughter elopes with his secretary. The lovers, overtaken on the bridge by her father, are transformed by the gods into birds and flutter beyond his reach. The scene with its willow tree covers the central part of a plate, dish, or bowl, with a border of butterflies, daggers, a fret, or other motif. The blue-and-white chinaware on which it appeared became immensely popular, and the design was reproduced with variations by many European potters and even in Asia, where it is still constantly employed, most of the ware being exported to Western countries.

willow herb, name for several plants, among them the fireweed (see evening primrose).

willow, common name for some members of the Salicaceae, a family of deciduous trees and shrubs of worldwide distribution, especially abundant from north temperate to arctic areas. The family consists of two genera, Salix and Populus, both of which are propagated easily by cuttings, grow rapidly, and characteristically bear male and female flowers in catkins on separate plants. Many plants of the narrower-leaved willow genus (Salix) flourish in cold, wet ground; willows grow farther north than any other woody angiosperm (flowering plant). The poplars (genus Populus) usually have heart-shaped or ovate leaves; they include the cottonwoods, aspens, and many species specifically named poplar. The cottonwoods (sometimes also called poplars) characteristically have seeds that are covered with fibrous coats so that when they are released at maturity they clump together in cottony balls. Cottonwoods were a welcome sight to the pioneers pushing westward, for they marked the streams in the otherwise treeless Great Plains. Some of the poplars, especially the aspens, have flattened leaf stalks that permit the pendulous leaves to quiver in the slightest breeze (hence the name quaking aspen). The quaking, or golden, aspen is a common deciduous tree of the mountains of the W United States; it is often the first tree to reforest burned-over woodlands. Because the lumber of this family is so soft it finds little use except for paper pulp (mostly the poplars), for charcoal, and especially in basketry and wickerwork (mostly the willows). The bushes and their twigs used in basketry are often called osiers. Willow buds and bark have also been used medicinally; the chemical predecessor of aspirin was originally isolated from the bark of a willow. The trees are valuable in erosion control along riverbanks because of their rapid growth. Economically the family is most noted for its many species planted as ornamentals, e.g., the Lombardy and the silver, or white, poplars, now naturalized in North America from Eurasia; the weeping willow, indigenous to China; and the pussy willow of North America. Populus gileadensis, an ancient horticultural species whose original form is unknown, is one of the plants called balm of Gilead. Yellow poplar is a name sometimes used for the unrelated tulip tree of the magnolia family. Willows are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Salicales, family Salicaceae.

pussy willow: see willow.

Any shrub or tree of the genus Salix, family Salicaceae, native mostly to northern temperate regions, and common in lowland and marshy areas. Willows are valued as ornamentals and for their shade, erosion control, and timber. Certain species yield salicin, the source of salicylic acid used in pain relievers. All species have alternate, usually narrow leaves, catkins, and seeds with long, silky hairs. Pussy willows, the male form of several shrubby species, have woolly catkins that form before the leaves appear and are considered one of the first signs of spring. Weeping willows have long drooping branches and leaves. Several species grow as small matted woody plants on the tundra.

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