Prairie willow

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Prairie willow catkins

Prairie willow leaves

Prairie willow

Prairie willow habit

Prairie willow habit

Prairie willow habit

Prairie willow fruit

Morphology

Trunk

Stems ascending or erect, rarely decumbent; branches unarmed. Bark grayish brown, fissures shallow, ridges narrow; wood white, soft.

Twigs

Reddish brown to yellowish brown, flexible to +/- brittle, tomentose, sometimes becoming glabrous with age; leaf scars nearly straight to shallowly crescent-shaped; buds reddish brown, ovoid, 1/6 to 1/4 inch, apex obtuse, scales tomentose.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, simple; stipules usually caducous, absent or rudimentary on early leaves, absent, rudimentary, or foliaceous on late leaves, lanceolate to ovate or crescent-shaped, .12 to .28 inch long, .06 to .08 inch wide, margins serrate; petiole .02 to .5 inch; blade oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, oblong, or elliptic, (.6-)1.6 to 3.6 inches long, .03 to 1 inch wide, base wedge-shaped, margins subentire to coarsely and irregularly serrate, apex acute, surfaces abaxially silvery white, puberulent or glabrate, glaucous, adaxially dark green to green, usually glabrous or glabrate, sometimes sparsely pilose,+/- shiny.

Flowers

Inflorescences axillary from lateral buds of previous year, flowering before leaves, catkins, spreading; staminate catkins: .24 to 1.8 inch long, .28 to .8 inch wide, many-flowered, leafy branches absent; peduncle absent; pedicels absent; bract .03 to .08 inch; pistillate catkins: .4 to 2 inches long, .2 to .8 inch wide, many-flowered, on leafy branches; peduncle absent; pedicels .06 to .08 inch; pistillate bract .06 to .08 inch, usually persistent after flowering. Flowers unisexual, +/- radially symmetric; perianth reduced to adaxial nectary; staminate flowers: stamens 2; pistillate flowers: perianth reduced to adaxial nectary; pistil 1; styles 2; stigmas 2.

Fruit

May-June; capsules, ovoid, .28 to .5 inch long, .06 to .08 inch wide, minutely pubescent; stipe .04 to .1 inch; seeds 5-15, greenish black, cylindric, .05 to .06 inch long, base with tuft of capillary hairs, apex pointed.

Ecology

Habitat

Upland tallgrass prairies, loess prairies, glades, clearings in woodlands, usually on sandy soil.

Distribution

East 1/2 of Kansas

Additional Notes