Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic, acute or abruptly acuminate with a short or long-pointed apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at the often unsymmetrical base, entire or remotely and irregularly crenately serrate, thin and firm, dark yellow-green and lustrous above, pale or glaucous and glabrous or pilose below, 1¼′—4′ long, ½′—1½′ wide, with a broad yellow pubescent midrib and slender veins forked and arcuate within the slightly thickened and revolute margins and connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles slender, puberulous, ¼′—½′ in length; stipules foliaceous, semilunar, glandular-serrate, ⅛′—¼′ long, caducous. Flowers: aments appearing before the leaves, oblong-cylindric, erect, nearly sessile on short tomentose scale-bearing branchlets, the staminate about 1′ long and rather more than ½′ thick, the pistillate 1½′ long, about 5/12′ thick; scales oblong, narrowed at the ends, dark-colored, covered with long white hairs, persistent under the fruit; stamens 2, with free glabrous filaments; ovary cylindric, short-stalked, with a distinct style and broad emarginate stigmas; pedicels less than half the length of the scale, villose. Fruit oblong-ovoid, acuminate, light reddish brown, pale pubescent, about ⅓′ long.
A tree, occasionally 30° high, with a short trunk rarely exceeding 1° in diameter, slender pendulous branches forming a rather compact round-topped shapely head, and stout branchlets marked by scattered yellow lenticels, coated when they first appear with pale early deciduous pubescence, becoming bright yellow or dark orange color, and in their second year dark red-brown and much roughened by the conspicuous leaf-scars; or more often a shrub. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, nearly terete or slightly flattened, with narrow lateral wing-like margins, light or dark orange color, glabrous or pilose at the base, about ¼′ long. Bark thin, dark brown slightly tinged with red, and divided into broad flat ridges. Wood light, soft, close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood.
Distribution. Cook’s Inlet, coast of Alaska, and valley of the Yukon River near Dawson southward through western British Columbia to northern California, ranging eastward through Washington and northwestern Oregon to northern Idaho and Montana.
From central California to San Bernardino County represented by the variety crassijulis Andr. (S. brachystachys Benth.) with shorter and broader obovate leaves rounded at apex, pubescent and tomentose branchlets and larger pubescent winter-buds. A tree sometimes 70° high with a trunk often 2½° in diameter.
On the high Sierra Nevada eastward to the eastern ranges of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and to northern New Mexico, northern Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota represented by the var. flavescens Schn. A shrub or rarely a small tree with obovate rounded yellowish leaves and branchlets.
23. [Salix Hookeriana] Barr.
Leaves oblong to oblong-obovate, acute or abruptly acuminate, or rarely rounded and frequently apiculate at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, coarsely crenately serrate, especially those on vigorous shoots, or entire, when they unfold villose with pale hairs, or tomentose above and clothed below with silvery white tomentum, at maturity thin and firm, bright yellow-green and lustrous, nearly glabrous or tomentose on the upper surface, pale and glaucous and tomentose or pubescent on the lower surface, especially along the midrib and slender arcuate primary veins and conspicuous reticulate veinlets, 2′—6′ long, 1′—1½′ wide; petioles stout, tomentose, ¼′—⅓′ long. Flowers: aments oblong-cylindric, erect, rather lax, often more or less curved, about 1½′ long, on short tomentose scale-bearing branchlets, the staminate ⅔′ thick and rather thicker than the pistillate; scales oblong-obovate, yellow, coated with long pale hairs, the staminate rounded above and rather shorter than the more acute scales of the pistillate ament persistent under the fruit; stamens 2, with free elongated glabrous filaments; ovary conic, glabrous, stalked, with a slender stalk about one third as long as the scale, gradually narrowed above, with a slender elongated bright red style and broad spreading entire stigmas. Fruit oblong-cylindric, narrowed above, about ¼′ long.
A tree, occasionally 30° high, with a trunk about 1° in diameter, and stout branchlets marked by large scattered orange-colored lenticels, covered during their first season with hoary tomentum and rather bright or dark red-brown and pubescent in their second summer; more often shrubby, with numerous stems 4′—8′ thick and 15°—20° high; frequently a low bush, with straggling almost prostrate stems. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, nearly terete, dark red, coated with pale pubescence, about ¼′ long. Bark nearly ⅛′ thick, light red-brown, slightly fissured and divided into closely appressed plate-like scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thin nearly white sapwood.