Salix babylonica but beyond China, it has not generally been as successfully cultivated as some of its hybrid derivatives, being sensitive to late-spring frosts. In the more humid climates of much of Europe and eastern North America, it is susceptible to a canker disease, willow anthracnose ("Marssonina salicicola"), which makes infected trees very short-lived and unsightly. "Salix babylonica" (Babylon willow) has many cultivars, including: Various cultivars of "Salix matsudana" (Chinese willow) are now often included within "Salix babylonica", treated more broadly, including: Yet other weeping willow cultivars are derived from interspecific "Salix" hybrids, including "S. babylonica" in their parentage. The most widely
Salix babylonica translations): Despite these Biblical references to "willows", whether in Latin or English, the trees growing in Babylon along the Euphrates River in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and named "gharab" in early Hebrew, are not willows ("Salix") in either the modern or the classical sense, but the Euphrates poplar "(Populus euphratica)," with willow-like leaves on long, drooping shoots, in the related genus "Populus." Both "Populus" and "Salix" are in the plant family Salicaceae, the willow family. These Babylonian trees are correctly called poplars, not willows, in the New International Version of the "Bible" (English, 1978): Salix babylonica Salix babylonica (Babylon willow