202 



The Willows 



24. YEW-LEAVED WILLOW Salix taxifolia Humboldt, Bonpland and 



Kunth 



This interesting species, vety different in aspect and in foliage from other 

 willows, grows along streams in southern Arizona and Texas, south through 

 Mexico to Guatemala, and is reported to occur in Lower California. It is a tree 

 18 meters high or less, with a trunk up to 4 or 5 dm. in diameter. 



The thick bark is gray and much fissured, the young twigs densely and finely 



hairy, becoming smooth and purphsh; the 

 winter buds are pointed, finely hair}% about 

 3 mm. long. The leaves are much smaller 

 than those of any other Korth American tree 

 willow, being only 3 cm. long or less, and 2 

 to 3 mm. wide; they are linear, pointed at 

 both ends, entire-margined or with a few low 

 teeth, whitish-hairy on both sides when young, 

 becoming dull and rather dark green and 

 smooth or nearly so on the upper side when 

 mature, but remaining more or less hairy be- 

 neath; their stalks are very short, not over 2 

 mm. long, and the ovate or ovate-lanceolate 

 hairy pointed stipules are about as long as 

 the leaf-stalks and either .fall away early or 

 remain until the leaves are fully grown. The catkins are borne at the ends of 

 short branches, are i to 1.5 cm. long, and flower in Arizona in May, in southern 

 Mexico in January, their oblong-pointed hairy bracts early falhng; the staminate 

 flowers have 2 stamens with filaments hairy toward the base; in the pistillate 

 flowers the ovary is hairy, the lobed stigmas longer than the very short style. 

 The fruiting catkins become i to 2 cm. long, the usually densely hairy capsules 

 ovoid-conic, 5 to 6 mm. long. 



The tree was first known to Europeans in Mexican gardens. Trees in the 

 Limpia Canon, Texas, have much less hairy capsules than those in central and 

 southern Mexico. 



Fig. 164. Yew-leaved Willow. 



25. SATIN WILLOW Salix sitchensis Sanson 



This showy species inhabits moist or wet soil from Alaska to southern Cali- 

 fornia, most abundant near the coast; while usually a shrub it sometimes forms a 

 tree, attaining a maximum recorded height of about 13 meters in Oregon, with a 

 trunk 3 or 4 dm. thick. It is also called Silky willow, Sitka willow, and Silver 

 willow. 



Its bark is thin, brown, nearly smooth or somewhat scaly; the young twigs are 

 densely hairy, orange-colored, becoming smooth, and red to brown, the winter buds 

 hairy, pointed, 5 to 7 mm. long. The leaves are obovate or oblanceolate, mostly 



