I wanted to give myself these few more personal lines in this book, in order to inform the reader about the reasons why and how I was led to these remarkable plants that are the willows.
This book is the first volume of a set of two complementary volumes, dealing with many themes, all unpublished, which characterize the Salix genre in its entirety and in its specificities.
The various themes presented in this work constitute a preliminary to volume 2 which will deal with the detailed study of the main species, nothospecies and the main cultivars which are derived from them.
It is aimed at all readers tempted by an incursion into the heart of the life of the willows, whether they are laymen, informed or specialists, they will find, I believe, answers to their expectations.
Botanical work on this vast genus has left part of the field open to the autodidact that I am. Not being an officially titled botanist, I am simply me, with all the advantages that a science enthusiast can bring in such a case.
I have endeavored to bring the best of myself from the point of view of the content, the relevance and the reliability of the innovative texts and the numerous all-new illustrations that accompany them.
To carry out this exercise as a whole, I took the path of general botany, a discipline which, moreover, was already part of my kit as a naturalist. I was thus led to auscultate, gauge and test willows from multiple angles such as morphology, anatomy, taxonomy, reproduction and phenology.
In doing so, over the many years of investigation, I have tried to bring my speech as close as possible to what presented itself to my eyes, hoping to have been sufficiently powerful and convincing to fully satisfy the most demanding readers in matter of corpus and imagery. It’s up to them to judge.
Les saules et moi is a long story of more than half a century, which began in the 1960s, at the national school of wickerwork and basketry in Fayl-Billot in Haute-Marne.
At the time, my convictions for these singular professions were very marginal, but nevertheless remained the product of an initial moral contract.
Also, at the end of four years of training and strong of my achievements are all singular, I took a different path by integrating the school of specialized educators of Strasbourg, then the sector of psychophysiology of work of the national conservatory of arts and professions.
At the same time and moreover, from a very young age, then throughout my life, my
primary interests are focused on life and earth sciences.
Readers, I submit to you in these pages the best of myself.
Daniel Wittig
Naturalist in heart and mind
book in french
