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Salix caesia Vill.

Blue Willow

Modern name

Salix caesia Vill.

Synonyms

S. myricaefolia Anderss.; S. divergens Anderss.

A shrub of low straggling habit, 2 to 4 ft high, very leafy, with glabrous dark brown young branches; buds glabrous, yellow. Leaves rather stiff, oval or obovate, tapered at the base, pointed, often abruptly, at the apex, sometimes wavy but not toothed at the margin, 34 to 112 in. long, 38 to 78 in. wide (somewhat larger on strong shoots), perfectly glabrous on both sides, dull green above, bluish beneath; stalks very short, usually 18 in. or less long. Stipules usually minute. Catkins 12 to 34 in. long, produced in April or May on short leafy shoots; catkin-scales obtuse, thinly hairy. Filaments of stamens free or united for up to half their length. Ovary sessile or almost so, hairy; style about half as long as the ovary.

Native mainly of Siberia and Central Asia; also found in the Alps from the Dauphiné to the Vorarlberg and Tyrol, though nowhere occurring in quantity in that region; introduced in 1824. One of the most distinct of European willows, easily recognised by its glabrous, stiff, very short-stalked leaves, bluish beneath. It was at one time met with in gardens as “S. zabellii pendula”, being grafted on standards and in that way transformed into a small weeping tree – pretty, but, treated in this way, usually short-lived.


Genus

Salix

Other species in the genus