GLAUCOUS WILLOW 



GLAUCOUS WILLOW. PUSSY WILLOW 



Sa/i\x discolor. 



A small tree rarely more than twenty feet in height, more often a 

 shrub. 



Bark. — Light greenish brown sometimes tinged with red, scaly. 

 Branchlets at first are stout, dark reddish purple, coated with pale 

 pubescence, later dull green. Buds are dark reddish purple, flat- 

 tened, acute, three-eighths of an inch long. 



Leaves. — Come out of the bud convolute, are oblong or oblong- 

 ovate or lanceolate, gradually narrowed at both ends, wedge-shaped 

 or rounded at base, crenately-serrate, acute. When full grown are 

 thick and firm, smooth, bright green above, glaucous or silvery white 

 below, from three to five inches long, from an inch to an inch and a 

 half wide. Midribs are broad, yellow ; petioles slender ; stipules 

 leaflike, semilunate, acute, dentate, about one-fourth of an inch 

 long, deciduous. 



flowers. — Catkins appear in very early spring, before the leaves, 

 over an inch long, two-thirds of an inch thick, white and silky be- 

 fore the flowers open. Stamens two with long slender filaments. 

 Ovary is elongated, downy, long-stalked and crowned with a short 

 style and broad spreading stigmas. 



Fruit. — Capsule, cylindrical, long pointed, pale brown and downy. 



This willow is coinmon along the banks of streams and 

 ranges from Nova Scotia to INIanitoba and south to Dela- 

 ware ; west to Indiana and Illinois and northwestern Mis- 

 souri. 



The leaves and twigs of many willows are subject to gall 

 growths caused by the stings of insects. The great cone-like 

 buds, an inch or more long and three-fourths of an inch in 

 diameter which are found at the ti]Ds of the branches of Salix 

 i/^r^/i?;- especially, are an interesting e.xample of these. One 

 often sees a Pussy Willow, growing by or fairly in the bed of 

 a small stream, virtually covered with these monstrous buds. 

 But open one of them with a sharp knife and within will be 

 found the sleeping larva of a gall-fly. This bud is formed of 

 many overlapping scales which are crowded and modified 

 leaves, all diverted from their normal purpose and com- 

 pelled to serve as the covering of an enemy. 



403 



