Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Salix lemmonii Bebb
- Family: Willow (Salicaceae)
- Flowering: May-June
- Field Marks: This shrubby willow has toothed or toothless leaves that are not more than four times longer than wide and are usually smooth at maturity.
- Habitat: Wet areas in the mountains.
- Habit: Shrub up to 15 feet tall.
- Stems: Slender, smooth or sparsely hairy, sometimes glaucous, yellow when young, becoming brownish black and shiny with age.
- Leaves: Alternate, simple, lanceolate to oblanceolate, up to 4 inches long, up to 1 inch wide, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, with or without teeth, silky-hairy when young, becoming smooth at maturity; stipules present.
- Flowers: Male and female flowers borne separately in separate spikes, the male spike up to 1 1/2 inches long, the female up to 2 1/2 inches long, both types of spikes appearing as the leaves are unfolding.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 2, the filaments hairy at the base.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, hairy.
- Fruits: Capsules lanceoloid, silky-hairy, up to 1/3 inch long, on stalks up to 1/10 inch long.
- Notes: Deer and elk may browse the young shoots of this plant.
Previous Species -- Arroyo Willow (Salix lasiolepis)
Return to Species List -- Group 5
Next Species -- Diamond-leaf Willow (Salix planifolia)
