Willow Identification Key: Salix matsudana

Common Name:

Scientific Name:

New Zealand Clones:

Technical Description:

Habit: Medium sized tree, up to 15-20 m high, narrow rounded crown, erect or slightly spreading branches, sometimes pendulous. Form is generally poorer than the Salix matsudana x S. alba hybrids.

Shoots: Lustrous green to dark reddish, finally brown, slender, spreading or erect, hairy at first, becoming hairless, moderately brittle.

Leaves: 5-16 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, narrow lanceolate; margins finely serrate; bright green above, lighter or whitish green beneath, silky hairy at first, soon becoming hairless.

Catkins: Only female in New Zealand; short, cylindrical, 1-1.5 cm long; appearing with or after leaves; flowering in September, introductions of male plants from China are not found outside Aokautere nursery.

Comments: Distinguished by bright green foliage and very short cylinderical catkins.