Salix purpurea

Basket willow, Basket Willow

Family: Salicaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Basket willow is a naturalized shrub found in the northern California Coast bioregion around Humboldt Bay settlements at elevations below 20 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces small, understated flowers on branches before leaves emerge. Growing as a shrub to small tree up to 5 meters tall, it features flexible twigs in yellow, gray, or olive-brown with a distinctive violet tinge. Its leaves are primarily oblanceolate, 35 to 77 millimeters long, with entire or finely serrated edges and a smooth surface. The shrub's slender, flexible stems and ability to grow near human settlements make it an adaptable introduced species.

Habitat: Around settlements

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: probably < 20 m

Bioregions: NCo (Ryan's Slough, Humboldt Bay)

California counties: Humboldt

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