Salix kaempferi

Salix kaempferi

(common folk herbs in Kunming)

Black willow.

[source] the bark of Salix kaempferi.

[plant morphology] Populus davidiana

Small tree, more than 3 meters high. The branches are round and covered with white hairs, especially the young branches and petioles. Simple leaves alternate; rectangular elliptic, 21-27 mm long, 9-14 mm wide, apex obtuse or apiculate, base broadly cuneate, entire, both sides covered with white hairs; petiole short. Flowers unisexual; arranged in catkins; each flower in axil of a bract; white, hairy; without perianth; stamens 1-2 or more. Capsule ovate, ca. 3 mm long, 2-lobed after ripening, lobes retroflexed. Seeds 3-5, brownish black, densely covered with white long woolly hairs.

It grows in the shrub on the hillside, especially on the sunny slope.

[collection] it can be harvested all year round, sliced and dried in the sun.

[flavor] bitter and astringent, cool.

[function indications] clearing away heat and toxin. For the treatment of large sores and poisons, it should be decocted and washed.