Willows! The History Farm’s Ethnobotanical Garden grows Scouler’s Willow because beavers in Bonhoeffer Botanical Gardens have had a choice of any of 19 native willow species; they’ve ignored all trees but the willows and initially all other willow species in
favor of Scouler’s. What is the beavers’ attraction to willows and why 1 species of willow, the Scouler’s? Might beavers feel better because of the Scouler’s (Salix) pain relief? Native Peoples scraped and cured willow bark for its salicin, found in today’s modern aspirin. This knowledge was not confined to NW Indigenous; willow bark was collected by the Sumerians and Egyptians and perhaps independently discovered in China and Japan. Maybe beavers’ favoritism of unique willow species gave curious humans a reason to experiment and discover aspirin? Perhaps you know another reason why our beavers attacked/ate (but not destroyed the roots of) all the Gardens’ Scouler’s Willow and left 20+ (counting a non-native Weeping Willow) other willow species alone?
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/filtered/?string=salix+scouler&tribe=&use_category=
https://beaverworks.org/beaver-grocery-stores/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjh.14520
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-02.pdf
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-03.pdf
https://www.businessinsider.com/beavers-invade-alaska-arctic-tundra-photos-satellite-images-damage-2023-1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salix_babylonica
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/12/10/arctic-beavers-impact-climate-change/10819428002/
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-03.pdf
The reason why the Gardens records 19 willow species, but then claims 20 is that we have 1 willow, so beautiful we can’t stand to remove it. This is an “exotic” (non-native) and propagates only by humans taking a cutting and putting the branch in the ground to root. It is a:
Lemon’s Willow
Weeping Willow
Beaver Willow
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