It is a medium to large deciduous tree growing up to 10–30 m tall, with a trunk up to 1 m diameter and an irregular, often-leaning crown.

[2][3][4] Like all willows, Salix alba is usually to be found in wet or poorly-drained soil at the edge of pools, lakes or rivers.

[13] Willow (of unspecified species) has long been used by herbalists for various ailments, although it is a myth that they attribute to it any analgesic effect.

[14] One of the first references to White Willow specifically was by Edward Stone, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, in 1763.

Over the next seven years he successfully used the dried powder of willow bark to cure 'agues and intermittent fevers' of around fifty people, although it worked better when combined with quinine.

Instead, she describes using the bark and the powdered root for its tonic, antiperiodic and astringent qualities and recommended its use in treating dyspepsia, worms, chronic diarrhoea and dysentery.

An active extract of the bark, called salicin, after the Latin name Salix, was isolated to its crystalline form in 1828 by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, who then succeeded in separating out the acid in its pure state.