Salicaceae Mirbel
Willow family.
Salicaceae, willow family.
Vegetative morphology. Plants shrubs; dwarf shrubs, or low shrubs, or mid shrubs, or tall shrubs, or trees; 0.5–100.5–650 cm high; not colonial, or forming colonies by layering, or forming rhizomatous or stoloniferous mats. Aerial stems erect, or decumbent, or prostrate. Branches yellowish, or grey-brown, or red-brown, or violet, or yellow-brown, or brownish; not glaucous, or thinly glaucous, or thickly glaucous; glabrous, or glabrescent, or hairy; pilose, or villous, or tomentose, or woolly, or with long-silky hairs; epidermis not flaky, or flaky. Branchlets yellow-green, or yellow-brown, or grey-brown, or red-brown, or violet, or brownish; not glaucous, or thinly glaucous, or thickly glaucous; glabrous, or hairy, or glabrescent; puberulent, or pubescent, or pilose, or villous, or with short-silky hairs, or with long-silky hairs; hairs sparse, or moderately dense, or very dense; hairs appressed, or fishhook-curved, or spreading. Bud scale inner membrane free and separating from outer membrane, or free but not separating from outer membrane, or fused to outer layer. Leaves alternate; existing for a single season or less. Stipules present, or absent; leaf-like, or scale-like; brown, or green; apex acuminate, or acute, or obtuse, or rounded. Petioles 1.5–9.493–46 mm long; glandular dots at the base of the leaf absent, or glandular dots at the base of the leaf present; convex to flat in cross-section, or shallowly concave in cross-section, or deeply concave in cross-section, but margins not covering the groove, or deeply concave in cross-section, margins covering groove; glabrous, or hairy, or glabrescent; puberulent, or pilose, or villous, or hairs short-silky, or hairs long-silky. Leaf blade bases cordate, or truncate, or obtuse, or acute, or cuneate, or attenuate, or rounded. Juvenile leaves reddish, or yellowish green; glabrous, or hairy; abaxial surface puberulent, or pubescent, or pilose, or villous, or tomentose, or woolly, or hairs long-silky; hair sparse, or moderately dense, or very dense; hair white, or grey. Blades 5–1000 mm long; 1–18.16–60 mm wide. Blades length-width ratio 0.7–2.383–4.8. Blades herbaceous, or leathery; oblong, or elliptic, or circular, or lanceolate, or oblanceolate, or obovate; flat, or revolute. Blades secondary veins impressed into adaxial surface, protruding on abaxial surface, or protruding on adaxial and abaxial surfaces, or flat on adaxial surface, protruding on abaxial surface; arising along midrib, or mostly arising at or close to a single point at base and running in recurved arches toward leaf apex. Blades adaxial surface dull, or shiny, or highly glossy; glabrous, or glabrescent, or hairy. Blades adaxial surface hairs puberulent, or pilose, or villous, or short-silky, or long-silky; sparse, or moderately dense; white and translucent, or grey, or a mixture of white and rust-coloured hairs. Blades abaxial surface not glaucous, or glaucous; glabrous, or glabrescent, or hairy. Blades abaxial surface hairs sparse, or moderately dense, or very dense. Blades abaxial surface pilose, or villous, or tomentose, or hairs short-silky, or hairs long-silky, or hairs woolly. Blades abaxial surface hairs white, or translucent hairs, or rust-colored hairs, or a mixture of white, or translucent, and rust-coloured hairs; straight, or wavy, or curved; appressed, or spreading, or erect. Blade margins glandular-dotted, or serrulate, or crenate, or entire, or serrate; with marginal glands, or with submarginal glands; glabrous; with teeth all around the blade, or toward the base, or toward the apex; with teeth per cm 1–5.923–20. Leaf apices acuminate, or acute, or obtuse, or rounded, or retuse.
Reproductive morphology. Plants dioecious. Flowering stems present. Inflorescence a catkin. Catkins flowering before the opening of leaf buds, or with the opening of leaf buds; catkins terminal on previous year’s shoot, or one to several catkins just below tip of previous year’s shoot, or numerous catkins just below tip of previous year’s shoot. Male catkins densely flowered, or moderately densely flowered, or loosely flowered; 2–25.68–55 mm long; 1.5–10.88–21 mm wide; slender, or stout, or subglobose, or globose, or shape indeterminate; peduncles 0–4.125–26 mm long; borne on a flowering branchlet, or sessile; flowering branchlets 0–6.208–32 mm long. Female catkins densely flowered, or moderately densely flowered, or loosely flowered; 3–43.33–150 mm long; 2–11.6–25 mm wide; slender, or stout, or subglobose, or globose, or shape indeterminate; peduncles 0–8.225–31 mm long; borne on a flowering branchlet, or sessile; flowering branchlets 0–11.8–80 mm long. Floral bracts tawny, or light rose, or brown, or black, or bicolour, or orange brown; widest at base, or widest at middle, or widest toward tip; 0.5–1.946–3.7 mm long; glabrous, or hairy all over, or hairy mainly at apex. Floral bracts hairs sparse, or moderately dense, or very dense; straight, or wavy. Perianth absent. Flowers unisexual. Stamens 1, or 2; filaments glabrous, or hairy for the full length, or hairy on lower half, or hairy at base only. Anthers purple, or purple becoming yellow, or reddish, becoming yellow; ellipsoid, or stout-cylindrical, or slender-cylindrical, or ovoid, or subglobose; axis straight, or axis twisted; 0.3–0.56–0.9 mm long. Male flowers abaxial nectaries absent, or one; adaxial nectaries one, or two, or several; adaxial nectaries slender-rod, or broad-rod, or square, or ovate, or half-cup-shaped; adaxial nectaries 0.4–0.7833–1.4 mm long; adaxial nectaries separate, or partially connected at base, or cup-shaped. Female flowers adaxial nectaries absent, or one, or two; unlobed, or two or more lobes; slender-rod, or broad-rod, or square, or ovate; 0.3–0.8933–2 mm long; shorter than stipes, or equal to stipes, or longer than stipes; nectaries separate, or partially connected. Stipes 0–0.7107–2.8 mm long. Ovaries inverse club-shaped, or pear-shaped, or ovate, or inverse turnip-shaped; ovary gradually tapering to style, or slightly bulged at the base of the style, or abruptly tapering to style; glabrous, or hairy; puberulent, or pubescent, or pilose, or villous, or tomentose, or hairs short-silky, or hairs long-silky. Ovary hairs in patches or streaks, or sparse, or moderately dense, or dense; white, or translucent, or a mixture of white, or translucent, and rust-coloured; appressed, or spreading; straight, or wavy, or crinkled; flattened, or ribbon-like, or cylindrical. Styles partially fused; 0.2–1.116–3 mm long. Stigmas slender-cylindrical, or broad-cylindrical, or two plump lobes with continuous stigmatic surface; lobes 0.08–0.4893–1.28 mm long. Ovules 6–15–34. Fruit a capsule. Fruit 2.2–5.383–9 mm long; glabrous, or hairy, or glabrescent.
Chromosome information. 2n = 17, 38, 57, 76, 95, 114.
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: Greenland, Canada.
Indigenous knowledge. Inuit name in Northern Quebec is
amaallinaaq. To ease the pain of toothache, the peeled root of a dwarf
willow is bitten on top of the sore tooth. This numbs the pain and sucks any
dirt or abscess out (Anon 1984).
were used on umbilical cords (Ootoova, et
al. 2001). They were also used to wipe the abcess off a boil. Lemming skin is
said to draw out the eye of a boil.
The Baffin name Suputiit for the
flowers of a willow gone to seed are called suputitsait, before the
"cotton" grows. Suputiit means "taken away by the wind" or "ligther than
wind". They were collected in the fall if a woman was known to be pregnant. The
puffy heads were pounded and shaken to remove stems and other impurities from
the cotton. Suputiit have haemostatic quality (they stop bleeding). The
cotton can be used to heal and dry the umbilical cord. It was known to promote
rapid healing. Suputiit can relieve indigestion from too much fat intake
when they are swallowed in small amounts. Theycan also relieve diarrhea and cure
cut around the cuticle area. Suputiit can be mixed with moss for wicks
for the qulliq. They could be used to make a caribou stomach hold its shape when
it was being dried for use as a container (Ootoova et al.
2001)
Uqaujait are young willow leaves when they are green. The small
reddish leaves (perhaps the bracts) are called alaksaujait (Ootoova, et
al. 2001).
Amaaq: willow root. The woody willow root is called
qiati or amaap silappianga. The Inuit have often utilized the
willow. Twigs, especially those of dead plants, are used for fuel. The flexible
branches were used in contructions of drying racks, drum hoops, the shafts of
fish spears and kayak ribs. YOung leaves and buds are rich sources of vitamin c,
and were frequently eaten in the spring. The children of Bathurst Inlet say the
eat the "fat of the willow". They strip away the outer bark ot twigs,
approximately 6 mm in diameter, then scrape off the white cambium layer with
their teeth. It tastes faintly sweet (Burt, 2000).
Porsild stated that the
leaves of several arctic willows that occur in Alaska and the western Northwest
Territoires are palatable.
Notes. Rodahl (1944) found that the ascorbic acid content of the
leaves and buds of Arctic willows exceed that of all other arctic plants
examined by him.
The willows are important soil stablizers and provide
shelter and food for wildlife (Burt 2000). WIllow buds consitute the major
portion of the diet of ptarmigan; Arctic hares and lemmings feed on the bark and
twigs as do muskoxen and caribou. At time muskoxen will feed selectively on
willows, wandering from patch to patch. An animal grabs a branch of willow in
its mouth, and strips the leaves from it with a twist of the head and neck. This
results in a very characteristic feeding damage.
Andre and Fehr (2000)
reported that Gwich'in people use the small dry twigs found among branches on
the willow tree for starting fires. In the spring time the Gwich'in peel bark
from the new shoots and lick the sweet juice, chew the stem or eat the tips.
Whistles can be made from the new but harder willow stem. The bark from young
shoots can be peeled into strips, wrapped around a cut like a bandage and tied
in place with a cloth. The white inner bark from young shoots can be made into a
poultice and used as a pain-killer on wounds. Willow branches are good among
spruce boughs in a tent. Mary Kendi of For McPherson reported that her
grandmother used to knit willows inot rugs for around the stove. Willows also
make a good mat for outside the tent door.
Young willows are strong and can
be used to tie together 5–10 whitefish. The willows are strong enough that
the fish can then be hung up. A thick bed of willow branches can serve as a
place to keep meat clean when butcheing a moose or a caribou. Beaver pelt
stretchers are made with willows, and in summer the spring for high set rabbit
snares can be made by bending over a thick willow. Fish traps used ot be made
with willow poles that were stuck into the botttom of a river or creek. Willow
was used to make smoke for drying meat, and in the days before metal cutlery,
for making spoons and forks (Andre and Fehr 2000). The frames of drums have been
made from willow. Rings made from willow were used for a game where the ring was
thrown into the river and then children ran along the bank of the river trying
to cath the ring with a stick.
Any kind of green willow leaves can be
crushed or chewed and applied ot bee stings and other insect bites, burns,
rashes, aches, cut and toothaches. Some people prefer to use leaves that are
white on the underside (Andre and Fehr 2000). Willow bark was used to make fish
nets; willow roots for mending and constructing snowshoes, smokehouses, canoes
and nets. "Pussy" buds were eaten raw.
Cite this publication as: ‘S.G. Aiken, M.J. Dallwitz, L.L. Consaul, C.L. McJannet, L.J. Gillespie, R.L. Boles, G.W. Argus, J.M. Gillett, P.J. Scott, R. Elven, M.C. LeBlanc, A.K. Brysting and H. Solstad. 1999 onwards. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 29th April 2003. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) should also be cited (see References).