Salix gooddingii

Goodding's black willow

Family: Salicaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Goodding's black willow is a California native shrub or tree found in the central California valleys, San Joaquin Valley, Sierra Nevada foothills, coastal southern California, Peninsular Ranges, Great Basin, and desert regions, particularly common in streamsides, marshes, and washes at elevations of 20 to 500 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces small yellow catkins on leafy shoots. Growing up to 30 meters tall with yellow or yellow-green twigs that are velvety when young and becoming brittle at the base, it develops distinctive white-hairy young leaves. Its leaves are linear to narrowly elliptic, 7 to 13 centimeters long, with finely serrated edges and wedge-shaped bases. The tree produces both staminate and pistillate flowers, with stamens arranged in clusters and ovaries that may be glabrous or slightly hairy.

Habitat: Common. Streamsides, marshes, seepage areas, washes, meadows

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: 20-2500 (generally < 500) m

Bioregions: NCoRI, CaRF, SNF, GV, SCo, PR, GB, D (esp GV, D)

California counties: Riverside, Orange, Kern, Shasta, San Bernardino, Imperial, Tulare, Sonoma, San Diego, Butte, Los Angeles, Mono, Tuolumne, Modoc, San Luis Obispo, Lake, Inyo, Nevada, Fresno, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, Yolo, Tehama, San Joaquin, Merced, El Dorado, Calaveras, Mariposa, Placer, Plumas, Amador, Sutter, San Mateo, Solano, Santa Clara, Sacramento, Colusa, Kings, Yuba, Glenn, Napa, Lassen, Trinity, Alameda

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.