Salix exigua (sandbar willow, narrowleaf willow, or coyote willow; syn. S. argophylla, S. hindsiana, S. interior, S. linearifolia, S. luteosericea, S. malacophylla, S. nevadensis, and S. parishiana) is a species of willow native to most of North America except for the southeast and far north, occurring from Alaska east to New Brunswick, and south to northern Mexico. It is considered a threatened species in Massachusetts while in Connecticut, Maryland, and New Hampshire it is considered endangered.Salix exigua Retrieved 24 April 2019.
Description It is a deciduous shrub reaching in height, exceptionally spreading by basal shoots to form dense clonal colonies. The leaves are narrow lanceolate, long and broad, green, to grayish with silky white hairs at least when young; the margin is entire or with a few irregular, widely spaced small teeth. The flowers are produced in catkins in late spring, after the leaves appear. It is dioecious, with staminate and pistillate catkins on separate plants, the male catkins up to long, the female catkins up to long. The fruit is a cluster of capsules, each containing numerous minute seeds embedded in shiny white silk.Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Salix exigua Jepson Flora: Salix exigua
Subspecies and variants The two subspecies, which meet in the western Great Plains, are: S. exigua subsp. exigua – western North America, leaves grayish all summer with persistent silky hairs, seed capsules long S. exigua subsp. interior (Rowlee) Cronq. (syn. S. interior Rowlee) – eastern and central North America, leaves usually lose hairs and become green by summer, only rarely remaining pubescent, seed capsules long In California and Oregon, S. exigua var. hindsiana – Hinds' willow
Cultivation Salix exigua is cultivated as an ornamental tree. In the UK it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Uses This willow has many uses for Native Americans; the branches are used as flexible poles and building materials, the smaller twigs are used to make baskets, the bark is made into cord and string, and the bark and leaves have several medicinal uses.University of Michigan Native American Ethnobotany Index:Salix exigua The Zuni people take an infusion of the bark for coughs and sore throats.Camazine, Scott and Robert A. Bye 1980 A Study Of The Medical Ethnobotany Of The Zuni Indians of New Mexico. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2:365–388 (p. 378)
The foliage is browsed by livestock.
Ecology The male flowers provide pollen for bees. It is a larval host to the California hairstreak, Lorquin's admiral, mourning cloak, sylvan hairstreak, tiger swallowtail,The Xerces Society (2016), Gardening for Butterflies: How You Can Attract and Protect Beautiful, Beneficial Insects, Timber Press. and viceroy.James A. Scott (1992), The Butterflies of North America: A Natural History and Field Guide, Stanford University Press.
References
External links
Dominguez M. Collet (2004), Willows of Interior Alaska, US Fish and Wildlife Service