General: Dioecious shrubs, 0.3-1.5 m tall, not colonial; branches erect or decumbent, flexible at base; twigs red-brown to violet, coarsely and moderately hairy; buds and stipules oily.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, narrowly elliptic to lance- or egg-shaped, 3.5-9.5 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, lower surface not glaucous, long-silky-woolly, hairs white, upper surface shiny, sparsely long soft-hairy to nearly smooth, margins entire to toothed, bases pointed to rounded, tips pointed; leaf stalks without glandular dots at top; stipules leaflike.
Flowers: Unisexual, lacking sepals and petals, borne in catkins which flower before leaves emerge, the catkins stout, unstalked; floral bracts dark, hairs straight; stamens 2; ovaries 1, hairy; styles 0.6-1.8 mm long.
Fruits: Capsules which split open to release the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a tuft of hairs; stalks 0.2-0.6 mm long.
Notes: The buds and stipules of this species are oily and emit a strong balsamic odour.
Moist to wet gravel bars, outwash fans and terraces, streambanks, shrub fens, thickets and meadows in the subalpine and alpine zones, often on limestone; common throughout BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, except WC BC; N to AK, YT and W NT, E to AB and S to WY.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
