Weeping willows add to beauty of Lake LaSalle

The landscape around iconic Lake LaSalle is getting some attention this fall, but it may take a few generations of students to fully appreciate it.

Grounds crews from University Facilities spent last week planting 32 weeping willow trees all around the edge of Lake LaSalle.

Distinctive and graceful, weeping willows grow tall with slender, serrated leaves that sprout from their drooping branches to provide a natural canopy — and just the right spot for relaxing along the water’s edge.

The saplings planted last week are replacements for some of the weeping willows the campus has lost in recent the years, says Daniel Seiders, a landscape architectural planner in Campus Planning.

“Many of the ones we previously had were lost in a storm several years ago,” Seiders says.

“This is not uncommon because willows are fast-growing but short-lived,” he says. “As a rule, faster-growing trees have weaker wood. When willows reach 30 years or so they start to decline and are often toppled by storms.”

Nonetheless, weeping willows are an important species to plant on the edges of ponds and lakes. They thrive in the wetter soil along the lake edge and do a great job of preventing shoreline erosion, he says.

“Their dramatic, weeping form also looks great looming over the water and reflecting in the surface,” Seiders says.