General: Dioecious shrubs, 1-6 m tall, not colonial; branches erect, flexible at base; twigs yellow-green, smooth or densely hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, elliptic to broadly egg-shaped, 2.5-10 cm long, 1.2-3.5 cm wide; lower surface glaucous, smooth or becoming so, hairs white, upper surface shiny or dull, smooth or midrib hairy, margins toothed or entire, bases rounded or nearly heart-shaped, tips pointed or subtapered; 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, smooth; styles 0.5-1.8 mm long.
Fruits: Capsules which split open to release the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a tuft of hairs; stalks 0.5-3 mm long.
Mesic to moist fens, thickets, forest edges and openings and floodplains in the montane to lower subalpine zones; infrequent in BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; N to AK, S YT and S NT, E to Labr. and S to MN, SD, WY, ID and WA.
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)
