Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
21. Salicaceae, the Willow Family
2. Salix L. -- Willow15. Salix petiolaris Sm. -- Meadow willow
Clumped or few-stemmed shrub to 3 m tall; twigs reddish-brown to dark brown or almost black, glabrous; branchlets spreading to erect, yellowish-green to dark brown, tomentulose, often glabrous with age. Leaves dark green above, white-glaucous beneath, pubescent when young, becoming glabrous with age, narrowly lanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, acute to abruptly short-acuminate at the tip, acute to slightly rounded at the base, 2.5-8 cm long, 4-15 mm wide, entire to finely serrate; petioles glandless, 3-10 mm long; stipules absent. Catkins emerging with the leaves; female catkins 1-3(5) cm long, sessile or on short branchlets to 1.5 cm long, naked or with 2-3 small leaves; bracts persistent, brown, villous; stamens 2. Capsules narrowly conic, 5-7 mm long, closely pubescent mostly toward the base; stipes 1-3 mm long. Flowering May, fruiting Jun. Wet meadows, stream banks, shores, ditches and other wet places; frequent in e and n ND, ne and sw SD and the NE Sand Hills; (N.B. to Alta., s to NJ, OH, IL, IA, ne SD and n MT, with outliers in sw SD, n NE and CO). S. gracilis Anderss.
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