SALICACEAE 41 



may vary to linear-oblanceolate or very narrowly elliptical, are 

 acute at the tip, narrowed to the petiole at the base, 2 to 5 

 inches long by 14 to i/^ inch wide, green on both sides, thinly to 

 silvery villous when young, and glabrate or entirely glabrous in 

 age. The flat, non-revolute margins are interrupted by fine, di- 

 vergent, widely spaced, spinulose teeth. The short petioles, 

 only one-sixteenth to 14 inch long, are moderately slender and 

 pubescent at first but later glabrous. There are no stipules. The 

 twigs and branches are moderately stout, terete, reddish brown 

 to brown, and generally pubescent at first. As a rule they become 

 glabrous, although sometimes branchlets retain their pubes- 

 cence for a year. The small buds are one-sixteenth to % inch 

 long, pubescent at first, later glabrous, and a little redder than 

 the twigs. 



The catkins, which appear after the leaf buds unfold, develop 

 singly or in groups of 2 or 3 on slender, leafy lateral or subter- 

 minal twigs ]4. inch long. The staminate catkins are ^ to 1^ 

 inches long, the pistillate 1 to 3 inches long and rather loosely 

 flowered. When in groups, the lower or lateral catkins appear 

 later than the terminal ones. The deciduous catkin scales are 

 yellow, lanceolate, and only thinly pubescent. Staminate flowers 

 have 2 stamens, the filaments of which are free and pubescent, 

 and each pistillate flower has a single gland and a very short, 

 divided stigma capping an almost obsolete style. Capsules, 

 when they are mature, measure yi to y% inch long and are am- 

 puliform in shape. They are thinly to silvery villous when 

 voung but glabrous at maturity, reddish brown to light or dark 

 brown, and raised on very distinct pedicels. This species flowers 

 in southern Illinois in early or mid April and in northern Illi- 

 nois in early or late May, and fruit matures in June or even to 

 late July. 



Distribution. — The Sandbar Willow is one of the most 

 common willows of northeastern North America. It ranges 

 from Quebec to New Brunswick, southward to Delaware, 

 across the continent to Alaska in the north, over most of the 

 Great Plains, and south to southern Louisiana. In Illinois, it 

 probably occurs throughout the entire state, growing, as its 

 name implies, very commonly on sandy shores and abundantly 

 on the moist alluvial soils of streams and marshy regions, par- 

 ticularly where land is subject to overflow from adjacent 

 waters. 



