Salix exigua

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Salix exigua
Salix exigua staminate catkin 2003-06-04.jpg
Leaves and staminate flower
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Salicaceae
Genus: Salix
Species:
S. exigua
Binomial name
Salix exigua
Salix exigua exigua, interior & hindsiana range map 2.png
Natural range of Salix exigua
S.e.exigua: green, S.e.hindsiana: blue, S.e.interior: red

Salix exigua (sandbar willow, narrowleaf willow, or coyote willow; syn. S. argophylla, S. hindsiana, S. interior, S. linearifolia, S. luteosericea, S. malacophylla, S. nevadensis, and S. parishiana) is a species of willow native to most of North America except for the southeast and far north, occurring from Alaska east to New Brunswick, and south to northern Mexico. [1] It is considered a threatened species in Massachusetts while in Connecticut, Maryland, and New Hampshire it is considered endangered. [2]

Contents

Description

It is a deciduous shrub reaching 4–7 metres (13–23 ft) in height, exceptionally 7.6 m (25 ft) [3] spreading by basal shoots to form dense clonal colonies. The leaves are narrow lanceolate, 4–12 centimetres (1+124+34 in) long and 2–10 millimetres (11638 in) broad, green, to grayish with silky white hairs at least when young; the margin is entire or with a few irregular, widely spaced small teeth. The flowers are produced in catkins in late spring, after the leaves appear. It is dioecious, with staminate and pistillate catkins on separate plants, the male catkins up to 10 cm (4 in) long, the female catkins up to 8 cm (3 in) long. The fruit is a cluster of capsules, each containing numerous minute seeds embedded in shiny white silk. [4] [5]

Subspecies and Variants

The two subspecies, which meet in the western Great Plains, are: [1] [4]

In California and Oregon,

Cultivation

Salix exigua is cultivated as an ornamental tree. In the UK it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. [8] [9]

Uses

This willow has many uses for Native Americans; the branches are used as flexible poles and building materials, the smaller twigs are used to make baskets, the bark is made into cord and string, and the bark and leaves have several medicinal uses. [10] The Zuni people take an infusion of the bark for coughs and sore throats. [11]

The foliage is browsed by livestock. [12]

Ecology

The male flowers provide pollen for bees. It is a larval host to the California hairstreak, Lorquin's admiral, mourning cloak, sylvan hairstreak, and tiger swallowtail. [13]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Salix discolor</i> Species of plant

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<i>Salix viminalis</i> Species of willow

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<i>Salix cinerea</i> Species of willow

Salix cinerea is a species of willow native to Europe and western Asia.

<i>Salix nigra</i> Species of tree

Salix nigra, the black willow, is a species of willow native to eastern North America, from New Brunswick and southern Ontario west to Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and Texas.

<i>Eriogonum fasciculatum</i> Species of flowering shrub

Eriogonum fasciculatum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names California buckwheat and flat-topped buckwheat. Characterized by small, white and pink flower clusters that give off a cottony effect, this species grows variably from a patchy mat to a wide shrub, with the flowers turning a rusty color after blooming. This plant is of great benefit across its various habitats, providing an important food resource for a diversity of insect and mammal species. It also provides numerous ecosystem services for humans, including erosion control, post-fire mitigation, increases in crop yields when planted in hedgerows, and high habitat restoration value.

<i>Populus deltoides</i> Species of tree

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<i>Salix lasiolepis</i> Species of willow

Salix lasiolepis is a species of willow native to western North America.

<i>Salix lucida</i> Species of plant

Salix lucida, the shining willow, Pacific willow, red willow, or whiplash willow, is a species of willow native to northern and western North America, occurring in wetland habitats. It is the largest willow found in British Columbia.

<i>Salix scouleriana</i> Species of willow

Salix scouleriana is a species of willow native to northwestern North America. Other names occasionally used include fire willow, Nuttall willow, mountain willow, and black willow.

<i>Salix bebbiana</i> Species of willow

Salix bebbiana is a species of willow indigenous to Canada and the northern United States, from Alaska and Yukon south to California and Arizona and northeast to Newfoundland and New England. Common names include beaked willow, long-beaked willow, gray willow, and Bebb's willow. This species is also called red willow by Native Americans according to The Arctic Prairies Appendix E by Ernest Tompson Seton.

<i>Salix geyeriana</i> Species of willow

Salix geyeriana is a species of willow known by the common names Geyer's willow, Geyer willow and silver willow. The type specimen was collected by the botanist Karl Andreas Geyer, for whom it was named. Its conspicuous, yellow flowers begin to bloom as early as March, to as late as the end of June.

<i>Salix gooddingii</i> Species of willow

Salix gooddingii is a species of willow known by the common name Goodding's willow, or Goodding's black willow. It was named for its collector, Leslie Newton Goodding.

<i>Salix arbusculoides</i> Species of flowering plant

Salix arbusculoides is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common name little tree willow. It is native to northern North America, where its distribution extends across Alaska and most of Canada.

<i>Salix brachycarpa</i> Species of flowering plant

Salix brachycarpa is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common names barren-ground willow, small-fruit willow and shortfruit willow.

<i>Salix pedicellata</i> Species of plant

Salix pedicellata is a species of willow. It is a shrub or small tree to about 6–8 m tall, native around the Mediterranean Sea from Portugal to Lebanon and Syria in the north and from the Canary Islands to Tunisia in the south. Salix canariensis may be treated as a subspecies of S. pedicellata.

Salix chienii is a large shrub or small tree in the willow genus Salix with initially light green and tomentose hairy and later reddish brown and balding branches. The leaf blades have lengths of 2 to 3.5 sometimes 5.5 centimeters. The natural range of the species is in China.

References

  1. 1 2 Lesica, Peter (30 June 2012). Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. ISBN   978-1-889878-39-3.
  2. Salix exigua Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  3. Arno, Stephen F.; Hammerly, Ramona P. (2020) [1977]. Northwest Trees: Identifying & Understanding the Region's Native Trees (field guide ed.). Seattle: Mountaineers Books. p. 191. ISBN   978-1-68051-329-5. OCLC   1141235469.
  4. 1 2 Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Salix exigua Archived 2008-03-28 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Jepson Flora: Salix exigua
  6. "Salix exigua var. hindsiana". Integrated Taxonomic Information System . Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  7. "Salix exigua var. exigua". Integrated Taxonomic Information System . Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  8. "RHS Plantfinder - Salix exigua" . Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  9. "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 93. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  10. University of Michigan Native American Ethnobotany Index:Salix exigua
  11. Camazine, Scott and Robert A. Bye 1980 A Study Of The Medical Ethnobotany Of The Zuni Indians of New Mexico. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2:365–388 (p. 378)
  12. Little, Elbert L. (1980). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Eastern Region. New York: Knopf. p. 333. ISBN   0-394-50760-6.
  13. The Xerces Society (2016), Gardening for Butterflies: How You Can Attract and Protect Beautiful, Beneficial Insects, Timber Press.