Salix viminalis Linneaus var. songarica Andersson

Shrubs to 3 m tall. Branchlets yellowish brown, grayish white tomentose. Petiole 2-5 mm, tomentose; leaf blade broadly lanceolate, oblong, or ovate-oblong, 4.5-14 × 1-3 cm, abaxially dull silvery silky, adaxially dirty green or grayish green, tomentose, base broadly cuneate, margin entire or sinuolate, revolute, apex acuminate; veins brown, diverging from midvein at obtuse angle. Flowering precocious or coetaneous. Male catkin 2-4 cm, sessile; rachis villous; bracts brown or nearly black, oblong, apex obtuse or acute. Male flower: adaxial gland linear, 0.5-1.5 mm; stamens 2, free, glabrous. Female catkin 3-4 cm, elongated in fruit. Female flower: ovary long conical, 5-6 mm, densely gray tomentose, sessile; style 0.8-1.5 mm, longer than 2-cleft stigma. Fl. Apr, fr. May. 2n = 38

A. K. Skvortsov indicates that the NW Asian and European species Salix lapponum Linnaeus, as treated in Fl. Xizang., was based on misidentified specimens of S. turanica.

Along rivers. Xinjiang (Ili He valley) [Afghanistan, NW India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan].