General: Dioecious shrubs, 2-6 m tall, not colonial; branches erect, flexible at base; twigs red-brown to yellowish, hairy or smooth.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, narrowly elliptic to egg-shaped, 3-14 cm long, 1-3.5 cm wide, lower surface glaucous, sparsely long soft-hairy to nearly smooth, hairs white and rust-coloured, upper surface dull or shiny, sparsely long soft-hairy to nearly smooth, margins entire to toothed, bases rounded to wedge-shaped, tips pointed; leaf stalks without glandular dots at top; stipules leaflike or rudimentary.
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 0.3-1 mm long.
Fruits: Capsules which split open to release the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a tuft of hairs; stalks 2-2.7 mm long.
Wet to moist thickets, swamps, fens, shores, streambanks, clearings and open forests in the montane zone; common throughout BC except NW BC; N to W NT, E to NF and S to NY, NC, IN, MO, SD and 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)
