SALIX – Breeding Willows with Specific Material and Growth Characteristics for Textile Timber Construction and as a Source of Salicylates

The breeding of willows with specific material and growth properties for textile timber construction is at the center of research. The high-value utilization of willow as a raw material to produce willow wood thread and willow wood textiles, for applications in architecture, product design, the timber and textile industry, represents a process technological innovation. In coupled usage, salicylates are extracted from the willow bark for medicine and cosmetics. For timber construction, whose demand is continuously increasing due to its excellent ecological balance and natural lightweight properties, willow wood thread is a disruptor, upon which the benefits of lighter, stronger, more aesthetic textile components could be combined with the advantages of wood. Automated weaving and braiding, robotic manufacturing, and additive manufacturing processes represent completely new processing forms for wood, offering new design and construction possibilities. Controlling the naturally grown, physical, and aesthetic properties of the willow wood thread already during cultivation is a novelty. Through hybridization of various willow species, breeding, and selection, varieties with specific growth characteristics have been developed, significantly improving the production of solid willow wood thread. Criteria included morphological features such as shoot length, shoot number, side shoots, verticality, torsion degree, diameter-length ratio, pith content, processability on textile machines and in robotic manufacturing, visual quality, and yield. Through cultivation in agroforestry systems, competition with food crops and log wood is minimized, and the diversification of agricultural yields as a renewable resource with positive microclimatic and soil-improving properties, as well as the increase in biodiversity in the cultural landscape, is achieved.