Salix scouleriana

Scouler's willow, Scouler's Willow

Family: Salicaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Scouler's willow is a native shrub found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, northern coastal California, San Francisco Bay Area, San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, and Great Basin in dry to moist forest, meadow, and swamp habitats at elevations of 1 to 3,400 meters. Flowering from February to June, this plant produces yellow-green catkins on leafy shoots with dark brown flower bracts. Growing as a slender tree or shrub up to 10 meters tall with yellow-green or brown twigs that are sparsely hairy to densely velvety. Its leaves are obovate to narrowly elliptic, 29 to 100 millimeters long, with edges that are often strongly rolled under and covered in white or white and rusty silky hairs. The plant produces pistillate flowers with silky ovaries and staminate flowers with two stamens.

Habitat: Common. Dry to moist forest, meadows, springs, swamps

Bloom period: Feb-Jun

Elevation: 1-3400 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, n CCo, SnFrB, SnGb, SnBr, SnJt, GB

California counties: Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Sonoma, Santa Clara, Sierra, El Dorado, Mono, Tulare, Siskiyou, Madera, Plumas, Fresno, Mendocino, Humboldt, Inyo, Mariposa, Riverside, Lassen, Nevada, Placer, San Mateo, Alameda, Monterey, Butte, Amador, Tehama, Shasta, Del Norte, Lake, Modoc, Kern, San Francisco, Calaveras, Santa Barbara, Trinity, Marin, Santa Cruz, Tuolumne, Napa, Alpine, Solano, Contra Costa

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