Salix spp. scrub or arborescent formations, lining flowing water and submitted to periodic flooding, developed on recently deposited alluvion. Willow brushes are particularly characteristic of rivers originating in major mountain ranges. Shrubby willow formations also constitute an element of lowland and hill riverine successions in all major biomes, often making the belt closest to the water course. Taller arborescent willow formations often constitute the next belt landwards in riverine successions of lowland western nemoral, eastern nemoral and warm-temperate humid forest regions, and a large part of the less diverse riverine systems of the steppic, mediterranean and cold desert zones. Vegetation of alliance Salicion albae, species Salix alba, Salix fragilis, Populus alba, Populus nigra, Populus canescens, Lycopus europaeus, Lysimachia vulgaris, Phalaroides arundinacea and Urtica dioica. May be affected by the invasive alien species Solidago canadensis, Aster novi-belgii, Aster novi-anglii, Impatiens glandulifera.
Arborescent galleries of tall Salix alba, Salix fragilis and Salix x rubens, with, in the east, Populus nigra, developed on ground submitted to a regular regime of inundation along western Eurasian nemoral lowland, hill or submontane rivers, including those of the British Isles, of nemoral Western Europe, south to Euro-Siberian Iberia, of Central Europe, within the range of medio-European, Illyrian, Dacian and Getic deciduous forests, north to the Baltic States, south to the lower and middle courses of rivers of the Alpine, northern Dinaric and Carpathian periphery, of Eastern Europe in the upper basin of the Dniepr system, in particular the basins of the Prypiat, the Berezina, the Dniepr, the Desna, the upper basin of the Don and the Khoper, the upper basin of the Volga system, in particular the basins of the Oka, the Tana, the Volga, the Kama, the Bielaia.