SALICACEAE 45 



at the base, with serrate to crenate-serrate margins and inbent 

 teeth that are gland tipped. The leaves are glabrous or some- 

 what tomentose beneath on the lower portion of the midrib, and 

 the nerves are rather prominent on old leaves. The stout 

 branchlets are terete, glabrous in age, and yellowish to dark 

 brown. They bear rather large, plump buds, 1/8 to 14 i^ich long, 

 ovate in shape and blunt, reddish yellow to yellowish brown to 

 dark brown in color, glabrous or occasionally quite noticeably 

 though thinly pubescent. The stipules are subcordate to broadly 

 reniform, V^ to ^ inch long, and acute, with serrulate, glandu- 

 lar margins, glabrous, glaucous beneath like the leaves, and 

 persistent or deciduous. The stout petioles are reddish yellow 

 to dark brown, glabrous or pubescent on the upper side, and 

 14 to l/z inch long. 



The catkins generally appear before the leaves, arising later- 

 ally from old wood above small, bractlike leaves. They are 

 nearly sessile or peduncled and at first \]^ to 2^ inches long. 

 The pistillate catkins become at maturity 2 to 4 inches long and 

 1/2 to }i inch wide. The rachis and peduncle are pilose, and the 

 Ijrowm scales, which blacken in drying, are also pilose. The 

 staminate flowers bear 2 stamens, with glabrous filaments 14 to 

 Ys inch long. The pistillate flowers have short, entire styles 

 about twice as long as they are thick, and entire or divided 

 stigmas. Mature capsules are ampuliform, ]/[ to y% inch long, 

 glabrous, and greenish to reddish yellow. They are raised on 

 slender pedicels Y% inch or more long. 



Distribution. — The Blueleaf Willow, a shrub of northern 

 sandy and alluvial situations, ranges from eastern Quebec west- 

 ward into eastern Wisconsin. In Illinois it is limited to the 

 northern section of the state. It grows in Winnebago County, 

 in Lake County on the sands with S. adenophylla north of 

 Waukegan, and on sandy ground near Lake Michigan in Cook 

 County. Flowering occurs in late April and early May, and 

 the fruit is ripe in late May and early June. This species has 

 been considered a variety of S. glaucophylloides Fernald, which 

 ranges much farther north and northeast. 



The variety angustifolia Bebb has narrower leaves, that is, 

 not over one-fourth as wide as long, and they are acute at the 

 base as well as at the tip. It is said to have the same general 

 range as the species as a whole, but in Illinois it is reported 

 only at Colehour and Englewood in Cook County. 



