General: Dioecious shrubs 0.3-2.5 (-6.5) m tall, not colonial; branches erect, flexible at base; twigs red- to yellow-brown, sparsely to densely hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, elliptic to broadly elliptic or egg-shaped, 2-10 cm long, 1-5.5 cm wide, lower surface glaucous, smooth or sparsely long soft-hairy becoming nearly smooth, hairs white and rust-coloured, upper surface shiny, long soft-hairy to nearly smooth, margins entire or blunt-toothed, bases and tips pointed to rounded; 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 1.6-2.8 mm long.
Fruits: Capsules which split open to release the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a tuft of hairs; stalks 0.4-1 mm long.
Notes: Vegetative specimens of Salix richardsonii are sometimes difficult to distinguish from S. barclayi (see Table 3, page 60).
Moist to mesic thickets, streambanks, gravelly shores, rocky slopes, fens, meadows and open forests from the montane to alpine zones; frequent in N BC; amphiberingian, N to AK, YT and NT and disjunct to SK; E Asia.
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)
