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Salix triandra L., Almond Willow

Account Summary

Introduced, archaeophyte, deliberately planted, very rare.

1836; Mackay, J.T.; Florencecourt.

September.

Growth form and preferred habitats

This small, bushy tree or fairly robust, spreading shrub which grows in wet to damp, lowland situations and can reach 10 m in height, remains the preferred willow species cultivated for basketry canes. Polymorphic and genetically variable, many named varieties exist and numerous continental clones were imported into B & I over many years. Typical plants bear lanceolate to elliptic, pointed leaves more than three times as long as wide, with their margins finely toothed. Leaf stipules are large, broad and persistent, and the mature bark is smooth, peeling off in large irregular flakes like the London Plane (Platanus × hispanica) (Meikle 1984; Parnell & Curtis 2012). The shrub or small tree is rare and grows in tickets and hedges in wet ground.

Commercial basket cane production

The major period of commercial willow cane production was during the Napoleonic wars and for a hundred years afterwards. Peak activity was around 1900, after which production declined rapidly as imports began from E Europe and the Argentine (Meikle 1984; Newsholme 1992). Irish commercial cane production was concentrated at the SE end of Lough Neagh in NI and further south along the Rivers Shannon near Limerick, and the Suir and the Blackwater in SE Munster (Hogan 2001). A recent account of Irish basket-making suggests S. triandra only began to be widely grown in Ireland around 1900, although varieties called 'Mauls' and 'Spaniards' were being grown S of Lough Neagh some years earlier (Hogan 2001).

Apart from intensive osier beds, however, S. triandra and varieties of the other two major cane species, S. viminalis (Osier) and S. purpurea (Purple Willow) would have been planted for their own and local use by many farmers with suitably damp ground. Lakeland Fermanagh gave virtually unrivalled opportunity for growing osiers in these small-scale 'sally gardens' and we can safely assume from folk memories and literature accounts that this also happened in many other parts of Ireland.

Fermanagh occurrence

In the Fermanagh Flora Database, there are just six records for this introduced and previously regularly planted willow species, all but the first and last of them made by Meikle and his co-workers. The habitats include riverbanks, roadsides and a gravel-pit in the south of the VC, the latter at least indicating some degree of spread and naturalisation. Apart from the first record listed above the other record details are as follows: road between Newtownbutler and Crom Estate, 1945; Gortaree gravel pits, Slieve Rushen, 1949; roadside at Galloon Td, Upper Lough Erne, 1950; around Newtownbutler 1951; Derryvore Td, NW shore, Upper Lough Erne (which is just across from Crom Castle), 11 September 1986, A. Waterman.

In the Revised Typescript Flora, Meikle et al. (1975) commented that S. triandra is frequent about the Newtownbutler area, which suggests either that modern botanists have been overlooking it, or that the species may have greatly contracted since the 1950s. The New Atlas hectad map gives evidence of a similar decline throughout B & I. Locally, the fact that these relicts of cultivation remained confined to the near vicinity of two large demesnes, Florencecourt and Crom, is significant, providing circumstantial evidence of where the species was originally planted and indicating its rather limited ability to spread. Even more interesting is the ability of the species to survive untended for perhaps 50 years or more.

S. triandra requires more fertile soil than the other commonly grown basketry willows and it is also reputed to be more prone to rusts and insect damage, a fact which could account for its apparent eventual demise in most of Fermanagh.

Status in Britain and Ireland

Until very recently, S. triandra was regarded as native in British Floras, at least in C & S England, but as a probable alien introduction in other parts of Britain and in Ireland (Scannell & Synnott 1987; Stace 1997). Without giving any explanation, Scannell & Synnott (1987) considered S. triandra might possibly be native in unspecified counties in SE Ireland, where indeed it has a stronger presence. This could merely reflect, however, the extent of its previous cultivation along the river basins of the Suir and the Blackwater, which were major areas of intensive osier production throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The New Atlas editors first recognised that S. triandra is an ancient introduction, an archaeophyte, and they mapped it as such throughout B & I.

Irish and British occurrence

In Ireland, S. triandra is rather thinly scattered throughout with a slight eastern and southern predominance and with a considerable number of older pre-1970 records displayed. In Britain, the distribution is much more decidedly south-eastern, although again the species is widely distributed reaching both Inverness and the Outer Hebrides. Over 26% of the hexads plotted for B & I were based on pre-1970 records and a further 14% were pre-1986. Taken together, these facts demonstrate the widespread decline of S. triandra, a species that without a major revival of basketry and replanting is certain to continue towards local extinction (Preston et al. 2002).

European and world occurrence

S. triandra is widespread throughout most of Europe, the distribution thinning out north of 60° latitude and southwards into the Iberian peninsula, Italy and Greece. From Europe, it spreads eastwards through Turkey and Iran into C Asia (Meikle 1984; Jalas & Suominen 1976, Map 204).

Threats

The current lack of planting fresh canes and the observed decline of existing populations will inevitably lead to local extinction.