Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
21. Salicaceae, the Willow Family
2. Salix L. -- Willow14. Salix pentandra L.-- Laurel-leaved willow
Medium-sized tree or shrub 2-8 m tall; twigs yellowish-green, shiny; branchlets spreading, dark brown and shiny. Leaves dark green and glossy above, light green and dull beneath, glabrous, thick and leathery, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute to short-acuminate at the tip, obtuse to rounded at the base, mostly 4-10 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, finely glandular-serrate; petioles strongly glandular at the summit, 5-10 mm long; stipules deciduous or persistent for a short time on vigorous shoots, reniform, ca. 1 mm long, 2 mm wide, glandular-dentate. Catkins produced after the leaves; female catkins 3-5 cm long, on leafy branchlets 2-3 cm long; bracts early deciduous, yellowish, pubescent; stamens (4)5(-12). Capsules ovoid-conic, the 2 halves bulged at the base, 4-5 mm long, glabrous; stipes 0.5-1 mm long. Flowering May--early Jun, fruiting Jun--Jul. Intro. from Europe as an ornamental, occasionally escaping to marsh borders, ditches, stream banks, ravines and other moist places; (Established as an escape in much of n U.S. and s Can.; Eurasia).
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