Salix polaris : Snow-bed Willow

Scientific Name:

Kingdom: Plantae

Division:

• Tracheophyta (vascular)
• Spermatophyta (seed bearing)
Angiospermae (enclosed seed)

Class: Dicoteldonae (two seed-leaves)

Family: Salicaceae (Willow Family)

Genera: Salix (Willows) (Classic Latin name for willow)

Species: polaris

Synonym(s): S.pseudopolaris

English Name(s):

Snow-bed Willow,

First Nation Names:

Structure:

• A tiny creeping shrub.
• Stems slender, freely rooting, glabrous (smooth), pale-yellowish and often buried in moss.

Leaves:

• Alternate.
• Petioled (on a stalk).
• Buds of all salix spp. are covered by a single scale.
• Obovate to narrowly elliptic in shape.
• Margins entire, (smooth), usually glabrous (hairless), sometimes ciliate (fine hairs).
• When mature 1.0-2.0 cm long, thin, fresh green on both sides, somewhat shiny above and prominently viened below.

Reproductive Parts:

• Flowers lacking a parianth(sepals + petals). Born in cylindrical catkins.
• Plants dioecious (uni-sexual).
• Female catkins 2-4cm long, stipes (ovary stalk) 0.2-0.7mm long, nectaries 2-5 times as long as the stipes.

Seed:

• Fruit a dehiscent (splitting open) capsule containing numerous small seeds.
• Capsules 4.8-6.4mm long. Thinly pubescent (hairy), glabrous (hairless) with age. Dark purplish-brown in colour.

Not to Be Confused With:

• Salix arctica looks very similar but is female catkins tend to be longer with more flowers or capsules than does S.polaris As well its leaves are glaucous (grayish) on the underside.
• Salix phlebophylla looks similar also but its branches are covered in persistent (not falling off) often skeletonized leaves. Also its nectaries are usually shorter than the stipes (ovary stalks)

Physiology:

• Are insect pollenated. Both male and female flowers have nectaries to attract pollenating insects. Male pollen is also brightly coloured red or yellow to attract insects.
• Several types of galls can be seen on willows. These are deformations of plant tissue caused by the physical actions or chemical secretions of insects.
• Willow Roses are a type of gall that grows on some species of willow. It is caused by the larvae of Cecidomyia rosaria. The larvae through chemical secretions cause the leaves of the bud to grow in a rose petal like fashion.

Life Cycle:

• Perennial.

Seasonal Cycle:

• Leaves and catkins deciduous.
• Catkins appear at the same time as the leaves.

Animal Uses:

• In spring and early summer the catkins and young leaves are eagerly eaten by many mammals and birds.
• Moose, caribou and deer all eat the twigs and young branches.
• The twigs and bark are eaten by hares and lemmings.
• Willow is an important food for bears and a secondary food for beavers.
• Willow is an important food for many animals.
• Winter buds are one of the principle winter foods of ptarmigan and grouse.

Habitat:

• In not to dry mossy tundra, late snow beds, and alpine scree slopes.

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