"Old and Valuable" Whomping Willow - Info

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 109794

> > Yb's answer:
> > Well not only do Willows grow at a rather alarming
> > rate for the tree 
> > world, but they also have long thin branches that
> > can be whipped 
> > around, inflicting great pain within a pretty fair
> > radius. 
> 
> 
> bamf again:
> 
> Speaking of pain, a point of interest with willows -
> we derive aspirin from them (salicylic acid , or
> however it is spelled).  So, after the willow whomps
> you, you can chew on one of its branches for headache
> relief. Also, willow bark tea was used for many years
> as a pain reliever. (Before the advent of aspirin).
> 
> Maybe the bark of a whomping willow also offers a more
> potent pain reliever?

Carol adds:
That's ironic, considering that willow switches were used for
punishing American and Canadian pupils in the one-room schoolhouses of
the nineteenth century. Maybe they were used in England as well; I
don't know. If so, "whomping" could suggest whipping in the sense of
old-fashioned corporal punishment. (I can see Filch coveting one of
the branches and the right to use it on the students.)

Carol, who thought it was birch trees that had salicylic acid