Salix babylonica Salix babylonica Salix babylonica (Babylon willow or weeping willow; ) is a species of willow native to dry areas of northern China, but cultivated for millennia elsewhere in Asia, being traded along the Silk Road to southwest Asia and Europe. "Salix babylonica" is a medium- to large-sized deciduous tree, growing up to tall. It grows rapidly, but has a short lifespan, between 40 and 75 years. The shoots are yellowish-brown, with small buds. The leaves are alternate and spirally arranged, narrow, light green, 4–16 cm long and 0.5–2 cm broad, with finely serrate margins and long acuminate tips; they turn
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