Salix aegyptiaca L., Cent. Pl. I 1: 33 33 1755. (Syn: Salix medemii Boiss.; Salix nitida J. F. Gmel.; Salix phlomoides M. Bieb.);
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Common name: Goat Willow, Pussy willow, Great sallow • Kashmiri: Braed mushk برآڑ مشک
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S- & E-European Russia, S-Ukraine, Crimea, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey (E-Anatolia, SE-Anatolia), Iran (EC-Iran, NE-Iran: Mts., N-Iran, Iranian Aserbaijan, W-Iran, W-Iran), Iraq (NE-Iraq), Afghanistan (Balkh, Kandahar, widely planted), Pakistan (I) (Baluchistan (I), Punjab (I)) as per Catalogue of Life;
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Kalatope id al120311: 11 posts by 4 authors. Attachments (2).
Found a tree growing in some fields…

Location: Kalatope, Chamba, HP
Altitude: 2100 mt
Habitat: fields ?
habit: tree
height: 3-4 mts
Season: flowering now


– The correct name for Indian Salix caprea is now S. aegyptiaca L., (syn: Salix caprea Hook.f. (non L.))
Local name Bred Mushk


– Funny, it is the only willow tree I’ve seen around here.. must have been planted by someone…


– The earliest species of Salix to flower in Himalayas. The catkins are very dense and fragrant.


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– The female of this species…. presenting… ‘Lady’ Salix aegyptica with her flower/fruit..??


Yes, this is Salix aegyptiaca L.


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Where can I find Salix Aegyptiaca and/or its essential oil? Salix aegyptiaca is also known salix caprea, bedmushk, bidmeshk : 1 post by 1 author.
I am desperately looking for “Salix Aegyptiaca“. The essential oil extract from this plant forms a very important ingredient of a medicine which has shown some promise in a rare disorder called “MSA” or Multiple System Atrophy.
My mother is suffering from this devastating disease. And the only Unani medicine that has shown some promise is something we are trying to make. All other ingredient / herbal extracts we have managed to find apart from “Salix Aegyptiaca” essential oil.
I need half to one kg of either the flowers (“male catkins”) or bark or branches of this tree.
I will be forever be grateful for any help extended to find this medicinal plant for my mother.
………………

ps: I found a discussion on “salix aegyptiaca” on this forum of google group. Here is the link.
Here is a very good paper mentioning the medicinal value of “Salix Aegyptiaca

Very common in Kashmir. One of the earliest plants to flower in Kashmir in February March when thick fragrant spikes appear at tips of branches before leaves. The tree has broad ovate-elliptic leaves for rest of the year. Every gardener in Kashmir would know.

Salix aegyptiaca L.
syn: S. caprea auct. (non L.)
Graceful tree becomes laden with fragrant catkins in February-March in Kashmir, much before the leaves start appearing. Mature leaves look similar to S. wallichiana but easily differentiated by large leaflets.
Photographed from Iqbal (Hazuribagh) Garden in Srinagar, Kashmir. 

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Salix aegyptiaca: 3 images.
Date of collection: 22 /03/2022
Location: Ganderbal kashmir


Can you post habitat, leaf both sides and trunk / branch images ?


ID is correct !



3 high res. images.


Female plant, male plant was uploaded in earlier post.


Still, I have confusion.. If Earlier S.caprea was identified as S. aegyptiaca… I have uploaded these photographs also as S. aegyptiaca., please correct the possible id


I will take all your posts of both as S. aegyptiaca


Your one plant was with male Catkins, another with Female spikes, both same species S. aegyptiaca. These confusions can occur in dioiecious plants. Few years earlier I had uploaded Laurus nobilis from California. This year I photographed a tree that I could not relate, but finally came to know that this is male tree same Laurus nobilis, I shared few days back. Both are now on our website.
You can keep track of both trees you shared and confirm when mature leaves appear. Trunk under the bark is striated in S. aegyptiaca, smooth in S. caprea. Moreover S. aegyptiaca can easily be propagated through cuttings, not S. caprea.




Salix caprea: 2 high res. images.
Kashmiri name: Braed mushk
Location: Ganderbal kashmir
Date of collection: 14 March 2021.


It does not have any distribution in India as per POWO 1 and POWO 2 and as per details at Salix.
Pl. check with Salix disperma Roxb. ex D. Don as per images and details herein.


Please check here sir.. Distribution of salix caprea in kashmir.
Research gate


Was it cultivated as stated in the publication?


Introduced sir. Cultivated in kashmir


But you have not mentioned as such in your post. That is why place, date, habit and habitat etc. are important. Pl. mention in future posts, otherwise we are wasting so much of each other’s time.


… sir has already mentioned that this sp. Of salix is cultivated in kashmir
Flowers of India


Taking it as Salix aegyptiaca L.as per discussions at Salix caprea


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Salix caprea
Shimla 
March 2019, 2020


I have collected the same sp. of salix from kashmir.


Yes, … I have seen your clicks as well. Perhaps, you submitted it recently at Flowers of India as well. It was not their earlier. So, I was also thinking of sending it to FoI since 2019.


Any other images,


This species has no leaves when in flowering. I’ll click it again now in vegetative stage.


Habit image?


Salix caprea leaves.


all the mails reverted back as photo size was 7-8MB each.
Sending again.



June 2021
4 images.


Image size should be less than 8 MB, upto 7.9 MB.


I got this message when the mails reverted back to me.


Taking it as Salix aegyptiaca L.as per discussions at Salix caprea


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Salix caprea: 2 images- 1 high res.
Location: kulgam 
Date of collection: 26-02-2023
Kashmiri name : Braed mushk


In Kashmir the sweet scented flowers of Bred Mushak signify the end of winter.


Yes Salix caprea, Bred Mushak.


To set nomenclature right, the Salix caprea of Indian authors incl FBI is correctly Salix aegyptiaca Linnaeus


You mean to say the images at the following are also of S.aegyptiaca:
Salix caprea (by …)
http://www.flowersofindia.Goat%20Willow.html (by …)
Salix caprea AT/JUNE2021/1 (by Anil ji)


Yes …, we don’t have S. caprea in Kashmir.



https://www.researchgate.A_short_chemical_review _on_Salix_Caprea_commonly_Known_as_Goat_willow
https://www.flowersofindia.Persian%20Willow.html
https://www.flowersofindia.Persian%20Willow.html
1 attachment


Yes, also needs to be corrected in FOI.


https://www.gbif.org/species/5372952
https://efloraofindia.com/2021/05/19/salix-caprea/


Salix caprea is Introduced species of kashmir…. And yes it has distribution In kashmir…
I think salix caprea is different from S.aegyptiaca


Yes


I do not know much taxonomy but it is written in Wikipedia that unlike all other willows pure S.caprea can not be grown from cuttings. According to Wikipedia :
Unlike almost all other willows, pure specimens do not take root readily from cuttings; if a willow resembling the species does root easily, it is probably a hybrid with another species of willow. Since Bred Mushk in Kashmir is propagated from cuttings (I did it once myself) it must either be another species or a hybrid.


Please note that for more than 100 years the Kashmir Bredmushk was known as S. caprea L. It was only Stewart in 1972 who ponted out that plant known as S. caprea by Flora of British India as also Forest Flora of Punjab 1956 was actually S. aegyptiaca L. Flora of Pakistan which usually lists all plants from Kashmir does not list S. caprea.

This should help to confirm whether or not both occur in Kahmir.
S. aegyptiaca (S. medemii) — Egyptian willow A willow originating from West Asia and widely cultivated. (Plants from Egypt, after which the species was named, represent cultivated material.) Due to tree habit and broad hairy leaves, S. aegyptiaca resembles the European goat willow S. caprea; however, unlike S. caprea, it is easily propagated from cuttings and thus has been favored for cultivation (Skvortsov 1999: 178). According to Rehder (1954), it has been in cultivation in the United States since 1888 (under the name S. medemii). As its naturalization is not yet positively demonstrated, for the time being we prefer to treat any findings as waifs. All examined herbarium samples that we could confidently identify as S. aegyptiaca as well as living plants found in Berkshire County might represent planted willows. Plants found in natural settings, deviating from S. atrocinerea or S. cinerea by somewhat bluish foliage, more densely pubescent leaves, and buds without recurved beak may belong to this species.
Another help in ID, wood under the bark is striated in S. aegyptiaca, smooth in S. caprea

Thanks for the very comprehensive and scholarly explanation.
It greatly adds to our understanding of an important Kashmiri plant.
I wonder if it is native to Kashmir or was introduced by medieval practioners of Unani medicine where it is of considerable importance.
Hakeems were an important part of Kashmiri society and as the treatises of Unani medicine were in Persian language many of them had links with Iran.

… needs to correct it in FOI also.


Thank you … Corrected at FOI now.



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