Trees of Neiv York State 123 



SALIGACEAE 



Salix rostrata Rich. [Salix Bebbiana Sarg.] 



Bebb Willow, Beaked Willow 



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

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

 inches in diameter. Crown broad and rounded. 



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

 long, y^-1 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. Stipules 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, 14-5/16 

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

 minute, comose seeds. 



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

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

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

 appressed, chestnut-brown, about l^ of 1 inch long. Mature bark reddish 

 green to grayish, smooth or shallowly furrowed. 



Habitat — Has a wider range of habitat than most "willows, 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 Newfoundland 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. 



