Also known as the Basket Willow, Common Osier provides superior material for weaving, grown in ‘Osier Beds’.

Native across north-west Europe outside the Mediterranean and into western Asia. In Britain it is native only to southern England, an archaeophyte elsewhere and in Ireland. It grows on damp ground near rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes, fens and wet woodland.

Dioecious. Insect-pollinated. Wind- and water-dispersed. Many cultivars, some with different coloured stems, produced for basket-making

To 10m, erect and bushy, with a short trunk and vertically fissured bark. Shoots yellow-brown, straight and vigorous, soon smooth. Buds green, pressed tightly to the shoots. Leaves very slender (20cm x 1cm) and distinctly crinkled, dark green above with pale, finely downy undersides, finely serrate. Male catkins yellow-green, 1-2cm, before the leaves; female green, spiky, 2-3cm. White Willow differs: much larger, broader, uncrinkled leaves.

Thrives in moist soils, growing very vigorously. Tolerant of sea winds and good at absorbing heavy metals, so often planted on contaminated ex-industrial sites. Propagated from cuttings pushed into bored holes. For weaving it is grown in osier beds, cut on 2-5-year cycles to yield fine, pliable stems that can grow 1.5m a year, planted closely and coppiced low.

An early source of pollen. Foliage attracts larvae of many insects, in turn feeding birds, which also find shelter in dense canopies. The dense root mats of this small tree help stabilise riverbanks, and to filter pollutants.

Watermark disease, which causes dieback. Also, scab and rusts.

There is interest in it for biomass energy, harvested on 2-3-year cycles and chipped. Osier is important in traditional weaving, especially for heavy-duty goods, with rods prepared as 'brown' (bark left on), 'buff' (boiled and peeled) or 'white' (winter-soaked and peeled). It is ideal for light screening or hedging, and stems can be woven into dramatic living sculptures.