Salix turanica Nasarow

A. K. Skvortsov indicates that the NW Asian and European species Salix lapponum Linnaeus, as treated in Fl. Xizang., was based on misidentified specimens of S. turanica.

Foliage is eaten by livestock. Plant is important from the ornamental point of view and for basket making.

Shrubs to 3 m tall. Branchlets yellowish brown, grayish white tomentose. Petiole 2-5 mm, tomentose; leaf blade broadly lanceolate, oblong, or ovate-oblong, 4.5-14 × 1-3 cm, abaxially dull silvery silky, adaxially dirty green or grayish green, tomentose, base broadly cuneate, margin entire or sinuolate, revolute, apex acuminate; veins brown, diverging from midvein at obtuse angle. Flowering precocious or coetaneous. Male catkin 2-4 cm, sessile; rachis villous; bracts brown or nearly black, oblong, apex obtuse or acute. Male flower: adaxial gland linear, 0.5-1.5 mm; stamens 2, free, glabrous. Female catkin 3-4 cm, elongated in fruit. Female flower: ovary long conical, 5-6 mm, densely gray tomentose, sessile; style 0.8-1.5 mm, longer than 2-cleft stigma. Fl. Apr, fr. May. 2n = 38

Tall shrub or tree, branches covered with whitish tomentum, yellowish white to greyish. Leaf mostly existipulate, petiole 2-5 mm, lamina 4.5-14 x 1-2.5 cm, broadly lanceolate, oblong to ovate-oblong, hairy on the upper surface, hairs short appressed, lower surfaces with dense silvery white tomentum, lateral veins 16-18-(20) pairs, margin slightly wavy or entire, tip acuminate. Catkin sessile, appearing before leaves, densely villous. Male catkin at anthesis 2.5-5 x 1-1.5 cm. Bract blackish, c. 1.8-3 x 0.5-1.5 mm, hairy, hairs long, straight. Gland 0.8-1.6 x 0.1-0.2 mm, linear. Filament glabrous, anther 0.5-0.8 mm long. Female catkin 3-4 cm, longer in fruit. Female flower: ovary 5-6 mm, densely grey tomentose, sessile; style 0.8-1.5 mm, stigmas bifid. Capsule sessile, 5-6 mm, ovate, silky pilose.

Nepal.

Distribution: Afghanistan, Paksitan (Chitral, Swat), Kashmir, Kazakstan, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan, N.W. India, Chian (Xinjiang), Mongolia.

2900 m

Fl. Per.: April-June.

Along rivers. Xinjiang (Ili He valley) [Afghanistan, NW India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan].

Salix viminalis Linneaus var. songarica Andersson