阿拉套柳 a la tao liu

Salix spissa Andersson.

Shrubs to 1.5 m tall. Branchlets brownish or chestnut colored, glabrous, purplish red and pubescent when young. Buds purplish red, shiny, apex acuminate. Stipules small, ovate, membranous, caducous; petiole 2-5 mm, pilose or glabrous; leaf blade oblong-ovate or elliptic, 3-6 × 2-2.5 cm, abaxially greenish, glabrous, silky pubescent when young, adaxially green, base cuneate, margin glandular serrulate, apex obliquely shortly acuminate. Flowering coetaneous or serotinous. Catkins lateral on distal part of branchlets, 4-5 × 1-1.5 cm; peduncle with 2-4 leaflets, gray tomentose; bracts brownish, black toward apex, oblong, tomentose. Male flower: gland adaxial; stamens 2; filaments distinct, gray tomentose; anthers yellow, globose. Female catkin elongated in fruit. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary long ovoid, usually bending, gray tomentose, shortly stipitate; stigma 2-cleft. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

Mountain slopes; 2700-2800 m. W Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia (SC Siberia)]