Salix babylonica a gold-yellow in autumn. The flowers are arranged in catkins produced early in the spring; it is dioecious, with the male and female catkins on separate trees. "Salix babylonica" was described and named scientifically by Carolus Linnaeus in 1736, who knew the species as the pendulous-branched ("weeping") variant then recently introduced into the Clifford garden in Hartekamp in The Netherlands. Early Chinese cultivar selections include the original weeping willow, "Salix babylonica" 'Pendula', in which the branches and twigs are strongly pendulous, which was presumably spread along ancient trade routes. These distinctive trees were subsequently introduced into England from Aleppo in
Salix 'Chrysocoma' Salix 'Chrysocoma' "Salix" × "sepulcralis" <nowiki>'Chrysocoma'</nowiki>, or Weeping Golden Willow, is the most popular and widely grown weeping tree in the warm temperate regions of the world. It is an artificial hybrid between "S. alba" 'Vitellina' and "S. babylonica". The first parent provides the frost hardiness and the golden shoots and the second parent the strong weeping habit. This cross was originally made at the Späth Nursery (Berlin, Germany) and was first mentioned in their 1888 nursery catalogue as "S. vitellina pendula" nova. Being a cultivar from the Chrysocoma Group, which includes all crosses between "S. alba" and "S. babylonica",