Salix babylonica grown weeping willow cultivar is "Salix × sepulcralis" 'Chrysocoma', with bright yellowish branchlets. Peking willow is a popular ornamental tree in northern China, and is also grown for wood production and shelterbelts there, being particularly important around the oases of the Gobi Desert, protecting agricultural land from desert winds. The epithet "babylonica" in this Chinese species' scientific name "(S. babylonica)," as well as the related common names "Babylon willow" or "Babylon weeping willow", derive from a misunderstanding by Linnaeus that this willow was the tree described in the "Bible" in the opening of Psalm 137 (here in Latin and English
Salix alba Pliny the Elder and others believed willow bark could ease aches and pains and reduce fevers. It has long been used in Europe and China for the attempted treatment of these conditions. This remedy is also mentioned in texts from ancient Egypt, Sumer, and Assyria. The first "clinical trial" was reported by Reverend Edward Stone, a vicar from Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, England, in 1763 with a successful treatment of malarial fever with the willow bark. The bark is often macerated in ethanol to produce a tincture. The active extract of the bark, called salicin, after the Latin name "Salix",