﻿Trees of New York State 123 



SALICACEAE 



Salix rostrata Rich. [Salix Bebbiana Sarg.] 



Bebb Willow, Beaked Willow 



Habit — Usuallv shrubby and 6-10 feet in height, occasionally a small bushy 

 tree 20-25 feet high with a short, often oblique and twisted trunk 5-8 

 inches in diameter. Crown broad and rounded. 



Leaves — Alternate, short-petioled, obovate to elliptic-lanceolate, 1-3 inches 

 long, %-l inch wide, acute at the apex, wedge-shaped or rounded at the 

 base, remotely serrate or entire, at maturity thick, dull green and rugose- 

 veined above, pale green or grayish pubescent beneath. Stipvdes folia- 

 ceous, semicordate fugacious. 



Flowers — Appearing in April and May, dioecious, glandular, borne in the 

 axils of oblong, rounded scales, the whole forming aments terminal on 

 short leafy branchlets. Staminate aments cylindrical-obovate, densely 

 flowered, %-l inch long. Pistillate aments oblong-cylindrical, loosely 

 flowered, about 1 inch in length. Stamens 2, with free, smooth filaments. 

 Pistil solitary, consisting of a gray-pubescent, narrowly ovoid, stalked 

 ovary, prolonged into a slender beak capped by 2 broad, sessile stigmas. 



Fruit — A gray-pubescent, ovoid, beaked long-pedicellate capsule, 1/4-5/16 

 of an inch long, opening at maturity by 2 opposite sutures to set free the 

 minute, eomose seeds. 



Winter characters — Twigs slender, at first hairy, during the first winter 

 smooth, purplish to brown, lentieellate, with elevated leaf -scars. Terminal 

 bud lacking. Lateral buds 1-scaled, oblong, rounded at the apex, closely 

 appressed, chestnut-brown, about % of 1 inch long. Z^Iature bark reddish 

 green to grayish, smooth or shallowly furrowed. 



Habitat — Has a %\ider range of habitat than most ^sillows, occurring in 

 swamps, along borders of streams and lakes, likewise on drier upland 

 sites on open hillsides, slashes and burns, often on comparatively dry soil. 



Range — A widely distributed species ranging from Xewf oundland to Alaska, 

 south in the United States to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Iowa, south- 

 west through Colorado to Arizona. Zones A. B, C, and D. 



Uses — Of no economic importance. 



