Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
21. Salicaceae, the Willow Family
2. Salix L. -- Willow18. Salix serissima (Bailey) Fern. -- Autumn willow
Shrub to 3 m tall; twigs gray to yellowish-brown, shiny, glabrous; branchlets erect to spreading, yellow to dark brown, glabrous. Leaves yellowish-green to green and semi-glossy above, white-glaucous beneath, glabrous, elliptic-lanceolate, acute to short-acuminate at the tip, cuneate to narrowly rounded at the base, 4-8 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide, finely glandular-serrate; petioles glandular at the summit, 0.5-1 cm long; stipules rarely present, flabellate, 1.5 mm long, 2 mm wide, glandular-serrate. Catkins emerging after the leaves; female catkins 2-4 cm long, on leafy branchlets 1.5-3 cm long; bracts deciduous, light yellow, pubescent; stamens 3-5 or more. Capsules ovoid with a long neck, 7-10 mm long, glabrous; stipes 0.5-2 mm long. Flowering Jun--early Jul, fruiting late Jun--Aug. Swamps, fens and bogs; uncommon in e and c ND and rare in the Black Hills; (Newf. to Alta., s to PA, n OH, n IL, MN, ND, MT and CO).
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Return to Family -- Salicaceae - The Willow Family
