Salix cascadensis Cockerell 

 Cascade willow 



A. DESCRIPTION 



1. General description: This is a low creeping alpine willow 

 (Salicaceae) . The stems are woody, but grow close to the 

 ground. The leaves are narrow and green on both sides, the 

 old ones persisting on the plant. The flowers are borne in 

 catkins, with male and female on separate plants. The 

 capsules are hairy. 



2. Technical species description (quoted from Hitchcock et al. 

 1964) : 



Plants with a slender, rhizomatously much-branched caudex 

 from an eventual taproot, forming dense mats on the 

 surface of the ground, the branches eventually becoming 

 thickened and woody; leaves firm, thick, entire, somewhat 

 arachnoid when young, sooner or later glabrate (or the 

 margins persistently pilose) , only the midrib and the few 

 primary lateral veins prominent, the blade mostly rather 

 narrowly elliptic and acute, the better developed ones 

 mostly 1-1.5(2.5) cm long and 2.5-5(8) mm wide, on a 

 short petiole 1-3 mm long, some of the leaves becoming 

 marcescent and persistent for one or more years; aments 

 smaller than in S. arctica, but larger than in S. 

 rotundifolia , appearing with the leaves, short-peduncled 

 at the end of short, leafy lateral branches (the main 

 vegetative shoots not ending in aments) ; scales dark, 

 persistent, usually conspicuously long hairy, the hairs 

 much surpassing the body of the scale; stamens 2, the 

 glabrous filaments often connate below; pistillate aments 

 mostly 1-2(2.5) cm long at maturity and with 12-25 

 fruits; capsules 4-5 mm long, villous-tomentulose or 

 rarely glabrous; style well developed, longer than the 

 bilobed stigmas, the style and stigmas together 1-1.5(2) 

 mm long. 



3. Diagnostic characters: There are 3 other creeping, high 

 elevation willows in Montana which S. cascadensis 

 superficially resembles. It is distinguished from S. 

 rotundifolia by having leaves longer than 7 mm and hairy 

 capsules. S. reticulata differs in having leaves with rounded 

 tips and prominent veins. S. arctica has wider leaves which 

 are glaucous beneath and do not usually persist, (adapted from 

 Dorn 1984) 



B. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 



1. Species range: "southwestern British Columbia south in the 

 Cascades to Mt . Rainier, Washington, occasionally east to 

 Montana and Wyoming and south to Colorado and Utah, reported 

 in northeastern Oregon (Hitchcock and Cronquist 1973)." 



