Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most phytotoxic of the heavy metals, as Cd is highly water soluble and readily taken up by plants. It easily enters the food chain, and can be a serious threat to human health. Heavy metal soil contamination has become an environmental concern throughout China over the past decade. The acreage of arable lands contaminated with heavy metals such Cd, As, Cr, and Pb has been increasing in recent years, now totaling 2×10⁷ hm² or about 1/5 of the country's arable land. Phytoremediation is a powerful technique for using growing plants to extract toxic metals from contaminated soil. However more information is needed concerning the optimum plant species, particularly for Cd contaminated soils. Salix × aureo-pendula is a fast-growing native riparian plant which has a high biomass, potential flood tolerance, and eurytropic to habitat. To determine the transfer characteristics of Cd from soil to S. × aureo-pendula, a microcosm experiment was conducted. Two groups of four treatments, with or without plants, were established with 5 replicates per treatment for non-plant group, and 15 replicates for plant group. P referred to 'plant’ S. × aureo-pendula (CKP, LP, MP, HP), where CK, L, M and H represent the control (0), low (2), medium (20), and high (80) treatments of Cd in mg/kg of soil dry weight. Soil and plant tissues were analyzed for various forms of Cd, the neutral exchange form of Cd concentration was extracted by CaCl₂, the chelate form of Cd concentration was extracted by chelant DTPA, and residual fractions of Cd in soils were tested. These measurements were used to determine the effect of S. × aureo-pendula and different treatments of Cd on bioavailable and total Cd in soil, and also Cd accumulation in the leaf, root, xylem and phloem in the plant treatments. Bio-concentration factor (BCF), translocation factor (TF), and bioavailability factor (BF) were calculated as indicators of the translocation and accumulation capability. The results showed: 1. S. × aureo-pendula significantly decreased the content of bio-available Cd, total Cd, and the bioavailability factor of Cd in soil. The neutral exchange form and available Cd concentrations decreased 52.73% and 25.34% respectively in HP compared to H. The total Cd concentrations of MP, HP significantly decreased by 11.33% and 13.89% respectively compared to M, H. 2. The Cd concentration in all tissues of S. × aureo-pendula increased with greater Cd treatments. After 90 d's treatment, Cd concentrations reached 170.64 mg/kg and 212.49 mg/kg in xylem and root respectively in HP. 3. Under increasing concentrations of Cd, the BCF in measured parts of S. × aureo-pendula decreased significantly, but opposite results occurred with prolonged treatment. LP-BCF increased 6.9 times from the 40 d to 90 d measurement. 4. TF increased under lower treatments of Cd. The 90 d TF for LP, MP was 47.94% and 41.34% respectively, which was lower than the 40 d measurement. 5. Cd bioavailability in LP and HP was 70.73% and 88.46% lower than in corresponding non-plant treatments L, H. There was no significant difference between MP and M. In summary, this study has shown that S. × aureo-pendula could effectively translocate bioavailable Cd to the trunk and crown for storage, particularly concentrating in the xylem tissues. These results determined that S. × aureo-pendula is suitable for long-term phytoremediation of Cd contaminated areas to improve soil security. S. × aureo-pendula is a promising phytoremediation candidate for Cd contaminated areas.