General: Dioecious shrubs, 1-5 m tall, not colonial; branches erect, brittle at base, strongly glaucous; twigs red- to yellow-brown, smooth to sparsely hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, strap- to lance-shaped, 4-9 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, lower surface very densely silky or short-woolly-silky, hairs white and rust-coloured, upper surface shiny or dull, silky to nearly smooth, margins entire to toothed, bases and 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 slender or stout, unstalked; floral bracts dark, hairs straight; stamens 2; ovaries 1, hairy; styles 0.5-1.5 mm long.
Fruits: Capsules which split open to release the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a tuft of hairs; stalks 0.3-2 mm long.
Wet to moist thickets, fens, swamps, streambanks, gravelly floodplains, clearings and open forests in the montane and subalpine zones; common throughout BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; N to S YT and NT, E to SK and S to NM, UT, NV and CA.
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)
