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General:
Dioecious shrubs, 0.3-1.5 m tall, not colonial; branches erect, decumbent, or trailing, flexible at base; twigs violet to yellow-brown, densely hairy.
Leaves:
Alternate, simple, narrowly oblong to lanceolate or egg-shaped, 1.3-4.5 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm wide, lower surface glaucous, long soft-hairy or woolly, hairs white, upper surface shiny, long soft-hairy, margins entire, bases rounded to wedge-shaped, tips pointed; leaf stalks without glandular dots at top; stipules rudimentary or leaflike.
Flowers:
Unisexual, lacking sepals and petals, borne in catkins which flower as leaves emerge, stout, on leafy twigs; floral bracts pale or dark, hairs wavy; stamens 2; ovaries 1, hairy; styles 0.2-0.8 mm long.
Fruits:
Capsules which split open to release the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a tuft of hairs; stalks 0-0.5 mm long.
Notes:
This species has been treated as a subspecies of S. brachycarpa; but because the zone of overlap between the 2 taxa is very narrow and clear evidence of intergradation between them is not manifest they are treated here as species.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
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