Salix humilis Marshall

Prairie Willow; Dwarf Willow; Scrub Willow

Shrub

Perennial

Vascular

Prairie Willow is a native deciduous shrub in the Willow family (Salicaceae). It occurs in central and northern Alabama. Prairie Willow grows in deciduous forest, along streams, and in prairie margins, usually in areas with calcareous soils. Prairie Willow is a small clonal shrub growing from 3-9 feet in height. It is often thicket forming. The young stems are red-brown, yellow-brown, or greenish brown in color and moderately to very densely pubescent. Older stems have dark reddish-brown bark. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, oblong to elliptic or obovate in outline with entire, crenate, or sinuate margins. The margins are often revolute (curved downward). The upper surface of the leaf is medium green in color with scattered hairs and the lower surface of the leaf is pubescent with white hairs. Prairie Willow is dioecious with separate male and female plants. Flowers are produced in catkins in the early spring before the leaves. The male floret consists of a pair of stamens and a hairy bract and the female floret consists of an ovary and a hairy bract. The fruit is a capsule that splits to release many tiny seeds embedded in white cottony hairs. Prairie Willow is listed as an S2/S3 species in Alabama (S2 - Typically 6 to 20 occurrences, few remaining individuals, or factors demonstrably making it very vulnerable in the state; S3 - Typically 21 to 100 occurrences, or limited acreage in the state) and globally as a G5 species (Demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery).—A. Diamond.

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Native FACU (NWPL) S2S3 (State Rank) G5 (Global Rank)

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