Shrubs or trees, 0.5-5(-17) m. Stems: branches gray-brown, red-brown, or yellow-brown, villous, or tomentose to glabrescent; branchlets yellowish, yellow-brown, or red-brown, pubescent or puberulent, tomentose, short- or long-silky villous. Leaves: stipules absent or rudimentary on early ones, foliaceous or rudimentary on late ones; petiole 1-5(-10) mm, pubescent or puberulent, villous, or short-silky adaxially; largest medial blade (sometimes hypostomatous), linear or lorate, (glands marginal), 30-136-143 × 2-14 mm, 6.5-28(-37.5) times as long as wide, base cuneate, margins slightly revolute, entire or remotely spinulose-serrulate, apex acuminate or acute, abaxial surface glaucous (sometimes obscured by hairs), densely long-silky, villous or pilose to glabrescent, hairs appressed or spreading, straight or wavy, adaxial slightly glossy, sparsely or densely long-silky to glabrescent; proximal blade margins entire; juvenile blade yellowish green, densely long-silky-villous abaxially. Catkins: staminate 7-54 × 2-10 mm, flowering branchlet 1.5-56 mm; pistillate loosely to densely flowered, slender or stout, 14.5-70 × 3-12 mm, flowering branchlet 2-55 mm; floral bract 1.2-2.6 mm, apex acute, convex, or rounded, entire or erose, hairs wavy, straight, or crinkled, abaxially hairy throughout or proximally, or glabrate. Staminate flowers: abaxial and adaxial nectaries present and distinct; filaments hairy on proximal 1/2; anthers (sometimes reddish turning yellow). Pistillate flowers: adaxial nectary oblong, ovate, or flask-shaped, relative adaxial nectary/stipe length variable even within same catkin; stipe 0-0.9 mm; ovary obclavate or pyriform, glabrous, pilose, or villous, or sometimes beak hairy, beak bulged below or abruptly tapering to styles; ovules 12-30 per ovary; styles (sometimes distinct), 0-0.5 mm; stigmas flat, abaxially non-papillate with rounded tip, or 2 plump lobes, 0.1-0.5 mm. Capsules 4-8 mm. 2n = 38.
Plant: Dioecious shrub or tree; 0.5-6 m tall, clonal by root suckers; branches gray-, red-, to yellow-brown, glabrous or tomentose becoming glabrous; branchlets glabrescent to hairy Leaves: stipules leaflike to absent; petioles glabrous or hairy, 1-9 mm long; proximal leaves on vegetative or flowering branchlets entire or gland-dotted; young leaves long silky; mature blade linear or ligulate, 30-160 mm long, 2-9 mm wide, 10-28(-37.5) times as long as wide, the lower surface glaucous or densely silky to silky-villous, the upper surface shiny, glabrescent or sparsely white villous to long silky, the base cuneate, the margins slightly revolute, remotely spinulose-serrulate or gland-dotted, with 1-5 teeth or glands per cm, the apex acuminate or acute INFLORESCENCE: cylindrical to subspherical catkins; coetaneous or serotinous; floral bracts tawny, 1.2-3.5 mm long, glabrous or hairy, the apices acute or rounded; pistillate floral bracts deciduous after flowering Flowers: STAMINATE FLOWERS densely flowered catkins 9-55 mm long; flowering branchlets 2-180 mm long; filaments hairy; nectaries 1 abaxial and 1 adaxial, slender or broad, 0.3-1.2 mm long. PISTILLATE FLOWERS in loosely flowered catkins 10-100 mm long; flowering branchlets 4-180 mm long; ovaries glabrous to sparsely silky; stigmas 0.28-0.72 long; styles 0-0.2 mm long; stipes 0.2-0.9 mm long; nectaries 1 adaxial, 1 or 0 abaxial, 0.5-2.7 mm long, shorter to longer than stipe Fruit: lanceolate or ovate Misc: Warm temperate; thickets along rivers, cienegas, and wet ditches; 350-2800 m (1100-8500 ft); Mar-Jun and throughout year REFERENCES: Argus, George W. 1995. SalicaceaePart 2. Salix. J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. 29(1): 39