The Willow tree, Salix, has over 400 species in its family. Its bark was boiled down to make Salicin, a precursor to Aspirin. In Japanese folklore it was believed that under every willow lived a ghost.
They are one of the first trees that comes into leaf and it looks like a perpetual bright shower of gold. This freshness lasts about two weeks before all the branches thicken up with leaves and they loose their etherial transparency.
This Willow in Hurstpierpoint protects a little duck house.
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