Chamisso willow

Plants 0.03-0.1 m, (dwarf), forming clones by layering. Stems long-trailing; branches red-brown, glabrous; branchlets yellow-green, glabrous. Leaves: stipules foliaceous; petiole 5-13 mm, (sometimes with 1-2 pairs of spherical glands distally); largest medial blade hypo-stomatous, broadly elliptic, subcircular, or obovate, 30-50 × 17-30 mm, (1.1-)1.6-1.9(-2.1) times as long as wide, base cuneate, margins flat, closely and prominently serrulate or spinulose-serrulate, (teeth 7-14 per cm), apex acuminate, convex, acute, or rounded, abaxial surface glaucous, glabrous, adaxial slightly glossy, glabrous; proximal blade margins entire, closely gland-dotted, or serrulate; juvenile blade glabrous or sparsely long-silky abaxially. Catkins: staminate 30-64 × 12-22 mm, flowering branchlet 4-28 mm; pistillate densely or moderately densely flowered, stout, 32-73 (-105 in fruit) × 10-17 mm, flowering branchlet 4-28 mm; floral bract brown or black, 1.2-2.8 mm, apex convex or rounded, entire, abaxially moderately densely hairy, hairs straight. Staminate flowers: abaxial nectary absent, adaxial nectary square, 0.5-0.9 mm; filaments distinct, glabrous; anthers ellipsoid or shortly cylindrical, 0.5-0.6 mm. Pistillate flowers: abaxial nectary absent, adaxial nectary square or oblong, 0.3-1 mm, equal to or longer than stipe; stipe 0.2-0.4 mm; ovary obclavate, pilose or villous, hairs ribbonlike, (sometimes in patches or streaks, refractive), beak gradually tapering to styles; ovules 12-18 per ovary; styles 0.8-1.2 mm; stigmas flat, abaxially non-papillate with rounded or pointed tip, or slenderly cylindrical, 0.4-0.7 mm. Capsules 5-7 mm. 2n = 114.

Flowering mid-late Jun. Arctic-alpine, Dryas heath tundra, dwarf birch-lichen tundra, sandy lakeshores, snowbeds, rock stripes or gravel, wet seepage areas, sedge meadows, willow-dwarf birch-sphagnum bogs, limestone and shale substrates; 0-1500 m; N.W.T., Yukon; Alaska; e Asia (Chukotka, Commander Islands, Russian Far East, disjunct in Sakhalin).

Salix chamissonis is disjunct on Attu Island in Alaska.