Salix wallichiana Andersson var. grisea Andersson in Kung. Svensk. Vet.-Akad. Handl. 6: 80. 1867; Salix julacea Andersson in Kung. Svenska Vet. Akad. Handl. 1850: 476 (1851); Salix wallichiana var. julacea (Andersson) Andersson in Kung. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl. 6: 81. 1867; Salix julacea var. grisea (Andersson) Flod. ex R.R. Stewart, Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. Kashm. 184. 1972.

Shrub or small tree, branches silky-tomentose, leaf stipulate, stipule minute or semicordate, coarsely toothed; petiole c. 0.5-1-(1.7) cm long; lamina c. 5-11-(15) x 1.5-3.1-(6) cm, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, entire or glandular serrulate, tip acute-acuminate, silky on both the surfaces when young, nearly glabrous when mature or persistently silky on both the sides. Flowers before or with the leaves. Male catkin c. (1.5)-2.5-3-(4) x 1-1.5 cm, 1-4 leaves at the base, rachis villous. Peduncle 1-10 mm long. Bract 1.2-2.2 x 0.4-0.8 mm, brown to black. Stamens 2 filaments free, glabrous or downy at the base. Gland solitary, erect opposite the bract. Female catkin c. 5-8 cm long, sessile or on a short leafy shoot, rachis villous, bracts obovate-oblong, smaller than in the male, dark brown, silky. Gland as in the male. Ovary stipitate, stipe as long as or many times longer than the gland; style 0.1-0.5 mm; stigma 0.2-0.5 mm long, subsessile, elongated, erect, each branch 2 fid. Fruiting catkin c. 5-17.5 cm long. Mature capsule c. 5-9 mm, values after dehiscence curl back on themselves; stipe 0.7-2 mm.

Fl. Per.: March-June.

Type: In Nepalia, Kumaon, Sillet, 1821, Wallich sub nomine S. grisea Wall. Cat. No. 3700 (K, L, LE).

Distribution: Afghanistan, Pakistan (Chitral, Kurram, Swat, Gilgit, Hazara), Kashmir, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, N. Mynamar; China (Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Nei Mongol, S. Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan Zhejiang) (F. Zhenfu, Z. Shidong & A.K. Skvortsov l.c.).

Salix wallichiana Andersson may be distinguished from S. dolichostachya Flod. by having densely silky ovary, on a stipe as long as or many times longer then the disk whereas in S. dolichostachya Flod., the ovary (and the fruit) is glabrous and subsessile. According to Parker (For. Fl. Punj. ed. 3: 501. 1956) specimens showing male catkins only are distinguishable with difficulty from S. dolichostachya Flod. (S. daphnoides sensu Brandis non Villars).

Kimura (in Hara, Chater & Williams, Enum. Fl. Pl. Nepal 3: 218. 1982) has tried to establish that Salix disperma Roxb. ex D. Don is conspecific with S. wallichiana Andersson. However, the reasons advanced are not convincing enough. Recently, F. Zhenfu, Z. Shidong & A. K. Skvortsov (in Wu Zheng-yi and P. H. Raven, Fl. China 4: 171. 1999) have treated S. disperma Roxb. ex D. Don as a synonym of S. tetrasperma Roxb.