Scientific Name: Salix discolor
Common Name: American pussy willow, native willow
Family Name: Salicaceae
Origin: North America
Hardiness Zone: Zone 6: (-23 to -18 °C)
Plant Type: Shrub - deciduous, Tree - deciduous
Mature Size: 5 - 7m x 5 - 7m (height x width)
Habit: Dense, Spreading, Upright
Form: Round
Texture: Medium
Landscape Uses: Cut flower or foliage, Erosion control, Reclamation, Spring interest, Waterside planting, Wetland - bogs, Woodland margin
Exposure: Full sun, Part sun/part shade
Soil or Media: Bog
Leaves: Simple, Alternate, Soft flexible, Glabrous, Tomentose, Elliptic, Oblanceolate, Oblong, Obovate, Ovate, Crenate, Entire, Serrate, Undulate (wavy)
Flowers: Catkin (ament), Green-yellow, Mar-Apr
Fruit: Capsule, Brown
Key ID Features:
Shrub 2-6m tall; twigs red-brown to yellowish, pubescent before quickly becoming glabrous; leaves narrowly elliptic to ovate to broadly oblanceolate, 3-10(-14)cm long, 1-3.5cm wide, sparsely long soft-hairy and then usually glabrous on both sides when mature, margins nearly entire to irregularly crenate or toothed, often undulate, bases rounded to wedge-shaped, tips pointed (acute); stipules leaf-like or rudimentary; male catkins grey becoming yellow and anthers emerge before the leaves and elongate up to 4cm long; female catkins elongate 7-10(-12)cm long as fruit develop. <a href ='http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Salix+discolor' target='_blank'>E-Flora BC</a>