Abstract
In Southern Brazil, in the Plateau of the State of Santa Catarina, species of Salix (willow), vernacularly called "vime", are cultivated for weaving crafts. The hybrid Salix x rubens Schrank (Salicaeae) is the widely cultivated species in the region. The research institute "Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária e Extensão Rural de Santa Catarina (EPAGRI)" in the city of Lages, is developing a program to improve the quality of the willow for basketry. Wood samples of young rods and the main trunk of Salix x rubens were collected, fixed and sectioned according to usual techniques in wood anatomy. Qualitative and quantitative features were described, following the IAWA Committee recommendations. Wood anatomy is characterized by solitary vessels, with simple perforation plate, alternate bordered intervessel pits, vessel-ray pits similar to intervessel pits, axial parenchyma scanty apotracheal to diffuse, septate and non-septate fibres, with simple to minutely bordered pits, uniseriate rays. Wood of young and mature samples are very similar, differing only in the presence of growth rings in the latter. This work characterizes the wood anatomy of young and adult samples of Salix x rubens, not described so far, aiming to improve the knowledge about the species.
Highlights
The genus Salix (Salicaceae) comprises 400 species and 200 hybrids, occuring in all continents, being most numerous in the Northern Hemisphere (Newsholme 2002)
In England, the species used for basketry are Salix triadra L., S. purpurea L., and S. viminalis L. (Newsholme 2002); in North America weavers prefer native species like S. scouleriana Barr., S. eriocephala Michx., and the clone S
“Americana”, resulting from hybridization between S. eriocephala Michx. and S. petiolaris Sm. (S. gracilis Anderss.); European settlers introduced S. purpurea L., S. pentandra L. and S. viminalis L. in Western United States (Dorn 1976, Newsholme 2002); in Japan, the local species S. kinuyanagi Kimura, which is similar to S. viminalis L., is used for coarser basketry, while the Korean native species S. koriyanagi Kim., closer to S. purpurea L., is used for basketry of better quality
Summary
The genus Salix (Salicaceae) comprises 400 species and 200 hybrids, occuring in all continents, being most numerous in the Northern Hemisphere (Newsholme 2002). One of the factors responsible for the cosmopolitan distribution of Salix today is the interchange of species and hybrids between America, Europe and Asia over many centuries for the manufacturing of objects by weaving together the long and thin willow wands. The hybrid Salix × rubens presents a great amount of pith and low production of wood, which affects flexibility, elasticity and twisting capacity, essential characteristics to the manufacture of willow basketry (Moura 2002). There is neither any work relating wood characteristics of the genus Salix with its use in the weaving of baskets, nor any about the structure of the Brazilian Salix secondary xylem. This work characterizes the wood anatomy of young and adult samples of Salix × rubens, not described so far, aiming to improve the knowledge about the most used species for basketry in South Brazil
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