Salix sitchensis

Sitka willow, Sitka Willow

Family: Salicaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Sitka willow is a native shrub found in northwestern California, northern Sierra Nevada, coastal western California, and western Transverse Ranges in tidal swamps, marshes, springs, and streambeds at elevations below 400 meters. Flowering in March, this plant produces catkins with yellow, gray, or red-brown flowers on flexible stems. Growing as a small shrub or tree up to 8 meters tall with yellow-, gray-, or red-brown twigs that are silky or long-soft-wavy-hairy. Its leaves are oblanceolate to obovate, 31 to 120 millimeters long, with dense silky or woolly undersides and strongly rolled edges. The plant's distinctive leaf stipules become leaf-like as the plant matures, and its twigs are notably flexible with varied hair textures.

Habitat: Common. Tidal swamps, marshes, springs, streambeds

Bloom period: Mar

Elevation: < 400 m (1800-2500 m in Siskiyou, Humboldt cos.)

Bioregions: NW, n SNH, CW (exc SCoRI), w WTR

California counties: Humboldt, Sonoma, Del Norte, Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Marin, Santa Clara, Siskiyou, San Francisco, Plumas, Nevada, San Joaquin, Napa, Butte, Santa Barbara, Trinity, Lake, Mariposa

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