Peach-leaf willow

Images

Click on image to view full size

Peach-leaf willow stipules

Peach-leaf willow leaf

Peach-leaf willow leaf undersurface

Peach-leaf willow

Peach-leaf willow leaves

Peach-leaf willow

Peach-leaf willow bark

Peach-leaf willow leaves

Morphology

Trunk

Dioecious; trunk spreading to ascending; bark brown, fissures irregular, ridges flat or shaggy; wood tan, soft.

Twigs

Grayish brown to light yellow, flexible to more or less brittle, glabrous; leaf scars nearly straight to shallowly crescent-shaped; buds brown to reddish brown, ovoid, .08 to .16 inch, apex acute, scales glabrous.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, simple; stipules usually caducous, absent or rudimentary on early leaves, rudimentary or leaf-like on late leaves, kidney-shaped, .2 to .28 inch long, .3 to .5 inch wide, margins serrate; petiole .2 to 1 inch; blade lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 1.2 to 5.2 inches long, .8 to 1.4 inches wide, base acute to rounded, margins serrulate, apex acuminate, lower surface grayish green, glabrous or glabrate, glaucous, upper surface yellowish green, glabrous, more or less dull.

Flowers

Inflorescences axillary from lateral buds of previous year, emerging with leaves, catkins, spreading or lax; staminate catkins: .8 to 3.2 inches long, .2 to .5 inch wide, many-flowered, on leafy branches 1.2 to 1.6 inches; peduncle .16 to .4 inch, villous; pedicels absent; bract .06 to .11 inch; pistillate catkins: 1.6 to 4.4 inches long, .3 to .6 inch wide, many-flowered, on leafy branches .8 to 1.6 inches; peduncle .2 to .6 inch, glabrous or sparsely villous; pedicels absent; pistillate bract ca. .08 inch, deciduous after flowering. Flowers unisexual, more or less radially symmetric; perianth reduced to abaxial and adaxial nectaries; staminate: stamens 3-7; pistillate: perianth reduced to adaxial nectary; pistil 1; styles 2; stigmas 2.

Fruit

May-June; capsules, ovoid, .12 to .28 inch long, .07 to .09 inch wide, glabrous; stipe .04 to .1 inch; seeds 15-20, greenish brown, cylindric, ca. .05 inch, base with tuft of capillary hairs, apex pointed.

Ecology

Habitat

Floodplains, stream banks, shorelines of reservoirs, ponds, and lakes, moist ravines, ditches, wet or damp places.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

The Cheyenne took an infusion of bark for diarrhea; applied a poultice of bark to bleeding cuts; used the branches to build sweat lodges and meat drying racks; and made drums from the wood (Hart 1981).