Day 26: Goat willow tea
- Sarah-Jane Cobley
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Salix caprea
I caught the tail end of the morning birdsong today. Walking through the little wood, along a stream, across a wooden bridge and into a meadow. I found goat willow dotted all along the field margin right beside the stream.
With my little harvest I walked back over the bridge and into the little wood. I wandered some narrow mud paths winding between the trees. I knew when I’d found my tea spot. Secluded, dappled sunlight, prominent birdsong.
Perfect for a little nature bathing moment!
ID features
Goat willow is also known as pussy willow because of the incredibly soft grey catkins when they first appear. Most of these have fallen off now, and the ones that remain have numerous stamens sticking out with yellow pollen stuck to each tip. These are the male catkins.
Female catkins are green and stick up. They grow on separate trees and look spikey but are soft. When their spikes open, they release cotton fluff, or willow fairies, as I like to call them. You may have seen them flying through the air recently. Like miniature dandelion clocks.
The new growth twigs are bright green and very flexible, (used for weaving). The leaves are very new as they appeared after the catkins. They are still soft with downy white hairs on the underside. Goat willow does not have long lance-like leaves like weeping willow or white willow. They are more oval and grow in clusters.
Medicinal uses
All willow trees contain salicylates. One of these is a glycoside called salicin which gets converted by the body into salicylic acid. This is the precursor to aspirin and so shares the same but milder effects. It was first isolated from meadowsweet.
Willow will ease pain, inflammation and fever and can be used as you would use aspirin.
It will reduce headache, body aches and pains, backpain, arthritis and period pains. It is a go to remedy for feverish colds and flu with body aches and head pain.
It is also astringent so will reduce blood and fluid loss.
Although willow is always referred to in terms of its salicin content, its effects are believed to be a combination of salicylates and flavonoids.
A nod towards the benefits of taking whole plant medicines instead of isolated chemical drugs. Aspirin overuse causes stomach ulcers which are responsible for a high number of deaths. Willow does not have this awful side-effect because the salicin is converted further down in the gut where it is no longer an issue to the tissue.
How to make a cuppa
I wanted to try the leaves today so picked the clusters of fresh new growth.
Sitting with my little willow harvest brought back memories of drinking the fresh bark tea last year as part of the quest. I remembered how therapeutic it was processing it and the amazing colour of the tea once I had brewed it for a while in my flask.
I used my knife to cut a vertical slit down the twig. I was then easy to pull off. I then peeled the inner bark out from the middle and ripped it into strips. I cut them into lengths of about 1 inch and popped them into my flask.
Taste
The taste of the leaves was very fresh and green, mild flavour and mild astringency. The colour was a light greeny yellow.
The colour of the inner bark tea was very exciting. It turned my tea bright red! As though I’d used a berry teabag. I can only assume it was a combination of the tannins and flavonoids. It even dyed itself dark red-brown!
Cautions
Do not take if you are allergic to aspirin.
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