Feltleaf Willow. Saiix alaxensis. 
Leaves 2% to 4 inches long and 1 to IJj inches wide, 
yellow-green, coated with dense, white wool beneath, 
smooth, and slightly wrinkled above. The mid vein 
is yellow. Seed capsules in a cluster 4 to 5 inches 
long with top of capsules ending in a small threadlike 
forked tip. Bark dark and shiny. Young t .\ i lt< covered 
with white hairs which they lose after a season. 
Common from the northern part of southeastern 
Alaska west to the Shumagin Islands and found spar- 
ingly throughout the interior. West and north of 
Kodiak Island the only willow reported to attain tree 
size. It is commonly a shrub, but occasionally is 20 or 
25 feet in height. 
THE BIKCH FAMILY 
Betuiaceae 
The individual species of birch are extremely difficult 
to tell apart. Generally the white birch is character- 
ized by a whitish bark, but often either Kenai or white 
birch has a reddish-tinged bark. This bark in all 
birches curls off around the tree bole. 
Kenai Birch. Bvtula kenaica. 
Leaves dark green above, lighter beneath, promi- 
nently veined. Cones a little under 1 inch long and 
almost one-half inch thick, not pendent. Bark dark 
brown, scaling off around the tree. Young twigs red- 
brown and spotted. Very little is known of the wood 
or of the habitat requirements 
Kenai birch extends along the coast on the mainland 
river drainages and from the head of Lynn Canal west- 
ward to Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island. It prob- 
ably extends into the interior through passes and river 
valleys. 
28 
