Weeping Willow - Salix alba x babylonica = Salix x sepulcralis agg.

The tree commonly called 'Weeping Willow' is a medium to large deciduous tree with a stout trunk topped by a graceful broad-rounded crown of branches that sweep downward to the ground. It grows 30 to 50 feet tall and may be equally wide.

As with many willows, the taxonomy is complicated.  Stace (4th edition) lists S x sepulchralis (a hybrid of alba and babylonica) and S. pendulina, a more complex hybrid between crack willow (itself a hybrid) and babylonica. The key differences given in Stace are:

S x sepulchralis: Leaves hairy to silky hairy more or less until maturity; ovary little longer than subtending bract; and

S x pendulina: Leaves glabrous to sparsely hairy even when very young; ovary much longer than subtending bract.

Stace says that S x pendulina is less common.  

S sepulchralis has two varieties – var. chrysocoma has yellowish twigs; var. sepulchralis has brownish twigs.

There is also  Salix babylonica itself, not keyed out by Stace: he says  ‘it differs from the other 2 weeping willows in its short (usually less than or equal to 2cm) and almost stalkless catkins  . . it is rarely grown in the BI, but much mis-recorded for its hybrids . . . it is sometimes planted, usually as f. pekinensis ‘Tortuosa’ with very contorted twigs, leaves and branches’.  This is very commonly planted in gardens as the 'Contorted Willow'.

Check the foliage, twigs and other details of bracts ovary to identify the correct hybrid - see description above. 

Often planted, quite frequently near to lakes and other water bodies.

Flowers April to May.

Deciduous.

Fairly widespread as a planted tree in England as far north as Yorkshire, less records from Scotland and Wales.

Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland almost always as a planted tree. It was not recorded in the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire.