Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Creeping Willow
Salix repens
- Subspecies: Ssp. repens, Ssp. argentea.
- Family: Willow Family – Salicaceae
- Growing form and height: Shrub or dwarf shrub. 10–70 cm (4–30 in.)
- Flower: Male and female flowers on separate plants. Inflorescence a small, almost globose catkin on a short, leaved stalk. Individual flowers in axils of catkin scales, small, lacking perianth. Catkin scales narrow, silky-hairy, brownish or reddish. Stamens 2, filaments hairless, anthers yellow. Pistil formed from 2 fused carpels, ovary long-stalked, hairless or hairy.
- Leaves: Often opposite. Short-stalked, lacking stipules. Blade 1.5–3 cm (0.6–1.2 in.) long, oblanceolate, often with bent apex, green and eventually hairless above, underside densely covered in smooth, shiny hairs, margins glandular, rolled under. Vein pairs 4–8.
- Buds: Globose, reddish, hairless or hairy.
- Fruit: A hairless or hairy capsule. Seeds bar-like, densely plumed.
- Habitat: Sandy shores, mire margins, mires and mire meadows with thin peat layer, depressions in sandy pine woodland.
- Flowering time: May.
The willows are insect-pollinated, sympodially growing, dioecious trees, shrubs, or dwarf shrubs. Their buds have a single protective scale, and their leaves are entire and stipulate. The inflorescence is a catkin which falls off in one piece. Hybrids between willow species are common.
The creeping willow is a low shrub or creeping dwarf shrub which has delicate twigs bearing flowers before coming into leaf. Its distribution is western. The creeping willow is usually regarded as a group of two subspecies of which ssp. _repens. is more common.
The willows are a group of 300 to 500 woody species. They occur in all continents apart from Australia and Antarctica. The willows so closely resemble the poplars (Populus spp.) that they are thought to be descended from similar ancestors. Those willows which have several stamens, such as the bay willow (S. petandra), occurred already in the Tertiary, and are most similar to the poplars. The more highly evolved willow species which have only two stamens seem to have increased only after the ice age. Most of the Finnish species belong to this group. The willows are of economic importance e.g. as raw material in basketry and as a source of tannins. In addition, the bark yields salicine, a medicinal substance.
