Salix exigua : Sandbar 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: exigua

Synonym(s): S.longifolia, S.interior, S.interior var. pedicell

English Name(s):

Sandbar Willow,

First Nation Names:

K'aii

Structure:

• Upright colonial shrub.
• Rarely over 2m tall.
• Branches with smooth brown or grayish bark.
• Branchlets reddish brown, sparsely pubescent (hairy), becomeing glabrescent (hairless).

Leaves:

• Alternate.
• Buds of all salix spp. (Willows) are covered by a single scale.
• Linear in shape.
• 4-11cm long, about 10 times longer than wide.
• glabrate (hairless) or thinly appressed pubescent (hairs).
• Margins entire (smooth) or more often minute widely spaced teeth.

Reproductive Parts:

• Flowers lacking a parianth(sepals + petals). Born in cylindrical catkins.
• Plants dioecious (uni-sexual).
• Catkins sessile (stalkless) or very short peduncled (stalked).
• Catkins on leafy branches appearing with the leaves.
• Pistillate catkins (female)spreading or even somewhat pendulous, 5-8cm long.
• Styles very short.
• Stipes (stalks) short, 0.6-0.8mm long.
• Nectaries 2, 2-3 times as long as the stipes (stalks).
• Bracts oblong in shape, acute tawny to yellow green, promptly deciduous (falling).

Seed:

• Fruit a dehiscent (splitting open) capsule containing numerous small seeds.
• Seed capsules (mature pistils) yellowish brown, glabrous (hairless).

Not to Be Confused With:

• Many of the erect shrub Salix (Willow) species can be hard to distinguish from each other. Useing the Keys and especially the Character Chart Key on the Salicaceae (Willow Family) Page should help.
• Salix lucida (Western Shining Willow) which can be distinguished by its taller stature when full grown and is leaves not being 10 longer than wide.

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 appearing with 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:

• A pioneering species on sandbars and mudflats.

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