Salix richardsonii

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Salix richardsonii
Salix richardsonii Hook.jpg
Salix richardsonii, illustration by William Hooker, 1840
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Salicaceae
Genus: Salix
Species:
S. richardsonii
Binomial name
Salix richardsonii

Salix richardsonii is a species of flowering plant in the Salicaceae, or willow family. It is known by the common names Richardson's willow and woolly willow. It is native to Russia [2] and northern North America, where it occurs in Alaska and northern Canada. [3] Some authorities consider it to be a subspecies, Salix lanata subsp. richardsonii(Hook.) A. K. Skvortsov rather than a species itself.

This willow is a branching shrub which forms dense thickets that grow to about 1 to 2 m (3.3 to 6.6 ft) tall, [3] but is known to reach 6.5 m (21 ft) . [2] Along with S. pulchra and S. alaxensis , it is the tallest willow in the Arctic Archipelago. [4] The stems of this species have smooth, hairless bark, but the young twigs are very hairy. The wood becomes brittle as it ages. This species is dioecious, with male and female reproductive structures on separate individuals. The inflorescence is a catkin. The catkins appear before the leaves in the spring. [4] The flowers of S. richardsonii are typically pollinated by bees. The seeds are viable for only a short period of time and germinate immediately upon contact with the moist substrate. [3] Natural hybrids can be formed with other willows, such as S. barclayi and S. calcicola, [2] with the hybrid Salix calcicola × S. richardsonii reportedly found on Southampton Island. [4]

This common willow can be found growing along streams and in other moist areas in the Arctic and above the timberline. It also grows in spruce forests and woodlands and areas that have recently burned. It grows on floodplains and other habitats that flood periodically. It grows on pingos and the open tundra. This species stabilizes eroding streambanks, and it can easily colonize disturbed areas and bare sites where debris has been cleared. It is fire-tolerant, resprouting easily after much of its aboveground mass has been burned. [3]

This plant provides food for many animals, such as moose, caribou, and beavers. The thickets provide cover, and beavers use the branches to build their dams. Thickets of the plant on streambanks allow the water to undercut the bank, providing overhangs for fish to hide under. [3]

Native Americans used parts of willows, including this species, for medicinal purposes, basket weaving, to make weapons such as bows and arrows, and for building animal traps. [3] The bark was boiled to make broth, which was used to treat sore throats and tuberculosis (see Salicylic acid). [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willow</span> Genus of plants

Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus Salix, comprise around 350 species of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions.

<i>Salix <span style="font-style:normal;">×</span> fragilis</i> Species of tree

Salix × fragilis, with the common names crack willow and brittle willow, is a hybrid species of willow native to Europe and Western Asia. It is native to riparian habitats, usually found growing beside rivers and streams, and in marshes and water meadow channels. It is a hybrid between Salix euxina and Salix alba, and is very variable, with forms linking both parents.

<i>Salix herbacea</i> Species of herb

Salix herbacea, the dwarf willow, least willow or snowbed willow, is a species of tiny creeping willow adapted to survive in harsh arctic and subarctic environments. Distributed widely in alpine and arctic environments around the North Atlantic Ocean, it is one of the smallest of woody plants.

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

Salix babylonica is a species of willow native to dry areas of northern China, but cultivated for millennia elsewhere in Asia, being traded along the Silk Road to southwest Asia and Europe.

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

Salix polaris, the polar willow, is a species of willow with a circumpolar distribution in the high arctic tundra, extending north to the limits of land, and south of the Arctic in the mountains of Norway, the northern Ural Mountains, the northern Altay Mountains, Kamchatka, and British Columbia, Canada.

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

Salix arctica, the Arctic willow, is a tiny creeping willow. It is adapted to survive in Arctic conditions, specifically tundras.

<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 boothii</i> Species of willow

Salix boothii is a species of willow known by the common name Booth's willow.

<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 lemmonii</i> Species of willow

Salix lemmonii is a species of willow known by the common name Lemmon's willow, named after J.G. Lemmon. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to Colorado, where it grows in moist and wet areas in mountain coniferous forest habitat, such as streambanks and meadows.

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

Salix alaxensis is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common names Alaska willow and feltleaf willow. It is native to northern North America, where it occurs throughout Alaska and northwestern Canada.

<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.

Salix fuscescens is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common name Alaska bog willow. It is native to northern North America, where it occurs throughout much of Alaska and across northern Canada. It is also present in Eurasia.

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

Salix glauca is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common names gray willow, grayleaf willow, white willow, and glaucous willow. It is native to North America, where it occurs throughout much of Alaska, northern and western Canada, and the contiguous United States south through the Rocky Mountains to northern New Mexico. It can also be found in Greenland, northwestern Europe, and Siberia.

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

Salix hastata is a species of flowering plant in the willow family, known by the common name halberd willow. It has an almost circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, most frequently found near the coast of the Arctic Ocean. In Alaska, it occurs in the north and in the central mountains. It also occurs in northwestern Canada, and in Norway and Russia, as well as various alpine or mountainous areas of Eurasia.

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

Salix pulchra is a species of flowering plant in the willow family, known by the common names diamondleaf willow, tealeaf willow, and thin red willow. It is native to northern North America, where it occurs in Alaska, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. The species is also found in northern British Columbia, and occurs in Russia.

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

Salix arizonica is a species of willow known by the common name Arizona willow. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it occurs in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

Salix calcicola, known as limestone willow or woolly willow, is a species of willow native to the subarctic and Arctic regions of Canada, including Nunavut Islands, continental Nunavut, northern Quebec, Labrador. Arctic islands: Baffin, King William, Southampton, and Coats.

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

Salix euxina, the eastern crack-willow, is a species of flowering plant in the willow family Salicaceae, native from Turkey to the Caucasus. It was first described by I. V. Belyaeva in 2009. It is one of the parents of the common crack-willow, Salix × fragilis.

References

  1. ↑ Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 147 (1838)
  2. 1 2 3 Salix richardsonii. Flora of North America.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Esser, Lora L. 1992. Salix richardsonii. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
  4. 1 2 3 G.W. Argus, C.L. McJannet and M.J. Dallwitz (1999 onwards). Salix richardsonii. Salicaceae of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 2 November 2000.
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