Salix discolor

Native

Wet. Swamps, wet meadows.

May to June

10′ to 20′

This is a widely recognized, small, deciduous shrub or shrubby tree rising. When a shrub it rises on many stems, when a tree it rises on a few trunks. It often forms clumps. In Minnesota mature trees are usually 10′ to 20′ tall and up to 12″ in diameter at breast height, though individuals can reach 27′ in height. They typically live 20 to 50 years.

The crown is open and rounded.

The branches are alternate.

The bark on young trees is grayish-brown, tinged with red, and smooth. On mature trees the bark is thin, light brown to gray, shallowly fissured, and scaly.

The twigs are stout, shiny, and dark reddish-brown, with scattered orange dots (lenticels). When young they are hairy, becoming hairless as they age.

The buds are reddish-purple, shiny, egg-shaped, flattened, and taper to a long point. They are covered with a single cap-like scale. The vegetative buds are about ¼″ long, the flower buds are about ⅜″ long.

The leaves are alternate, oblong to narrowly elliptic, firm, 2″ to 5″ long, and ½″ to 1½″ wide. They are usually less than 5½ times as long as wide. The blade tapers at the base to a ⅜″ to 1″ long leaf stalk, and may be either blunt or pointed at the tip. There is often a pair of small, leaf-like appendages (stipules) at the base of the leaf stalk. Young leaves are reddish and hairy. The upper surface of mature leaves is bright green, shiny, and hairless, with raised veins. The underside is whitish and hairless or sparsely hairy. The margin is untoothed or has shallow, irregular teeth, especially above the middle. In the fall the leaves turn yellow.

Male and female flowers are separate trees. Both flowers are cylindrical catkins on a short stalk with tiny, leaf-like bracts at the base of the stalk. When immature they are densely covered with silky hairs. They are fully developed before the leaves appear. The female catkin is ½″ to 1⅛″ long and greenish with dark brown scales. The male catkin is ¾″ to 1½″ long, fuzzy, silvery or white with dark brown scales, and has 2 stamens with yellow anthers. The flowers are pollinated by wind.

The fruit is a small, brown, densely hairy, cylindrical, ¼″ to ½″ long, long-beaked capsule, containing many seeds. The capsules are attached to 2⅜″ to 3⅛″ long seed catkins.

Bebb’s willow (Salix bebbiana) buds are blunt. The leaf upper surface is dull green and wrinkled, not shiny and smooth. The lower surface has whitish hairs and prominent, meshing veins. The margins are somewhat rolled under.