Willows are trees and shrubs species important for their wood and wood products but also for their role in environmental protection. In the context of energy crises, woody biomass for short rotation coppice could be one of important energy resource. Willows hybrids RO-892, RO-1077 and RO–1082 developed by National Institute for Research and Development in Forestrywere used to establish short rotation coppice on different sites, even marginal areas like saline soil or ash pods. Biometric characteristics, diameter at 1.0 m, and the maximum height of each shoot, and also the number of shoots per stool were evaluated and the biomass potential was estimated. The research highlighted the capacity of willow to grow on difficult site conditions like saline soil or ash pods. The yield production was significantly lower than on agricultural land but the

The Salix genus includes many species with various uses: wood production, biomass, animal feed, source of salicylic acid, land reclamation, biofuel, a.o. In order to establish a collection of potential genitors, source of resistance genes to various stressors, 39 accessions were collected in 2015 from Banat and Oltenia, Romania. This paper presents an evaluation of 20 accessions, belonging to 7 species, collected from polluted or degraded lands in Oltenia. The intra- and interspecific variability, analyzed through the prism of the production characters for SRC, is significant. The study gives the possibility of selecting some valuable genitors, for a breeding strategy and creation of new forms more adapted to the new environmental challenges. The best results regarding biomass production, sprouting capacity and growth rate were recorded by some accessions, belonging to the species S. triandra, S. viminalis, S. fragilis.