Willow Identification Key: Salix pentandra

Common Name:

Scientific Name:

New Zealand Clones:

Female: Patent Lumley PN 671, G PN 253
Male: Dark French PN670

Technical Description:

Medium-sized tree or shrub 2-8 m tall;

Twigs yellowish-green, shiny.

Branchlets spreading, dark brown and shiny.

Leaves distinctively dark green and glossy above, light green and dull beneath, glabrous, thick and leathery, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute to short-acuminate at the tip, obtuse to rounded at the base, mostly 4-10 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, finely glandular-serrate.

Petioles strongly glandular at the summit, 5-10 mm long.

Stipules deciduous or persistent for a short time on vigorous shoots, reniform, ca. 1 mm long, 2 mm wide, glandular-dentate.

Catkins produced after the leaves;

Female catkins 3-5 cm long, on leafy branchlets 2-3 cm long;

Bracts early deciduous, yellowish, pubescent;

Stamens (4)5(-12).

Capsules ovoid-conic, the 2 halves bulged at the base, 4-5 mm long, glabrous.

Comments: An ornamental species, but also used in soil conservation. Very late to leaf and flower.
(from Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center)