Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Eared Willow
Salix aurita
- Family: Willow Family – Salicaceae
- Growing form and height: Shrub. 0.5–2.5 m (ca. 1.5–8 ft.).
- Flower: Male and female flowers on separate plants. Inflorescence a stout, dense, many-flowered catkin on a short, small-leaved stalk. Individual flowers in axils of catkin scales, small, lacking perianth. Catkin scales small, hairy, with dark tip. Stamens 2 base of filament hairy, anthers yellow. Pistil formed from 2 fused carpels, ovary grey-hairy.
- Leaves: Alternate. Stalked, stipulate. Stipules persistent, large, kidney-shaped, and with saw-like margins. Leaf-blade 2.5–5 cm (1–2 in.), obovate, with bent apex, wavy and entire or small-toothed margins, dark dull green, sparsely hairy, and wrinkled above, greyish, downy, and prominently veined beneath. Vein pairs 7–9.
- Buds: Small, pale brown, hairy or hairless.
- Fruit: A pale brown, hairy capsule. Seeds plumed.
- Habitat: Swamp margins, damp scrubby meadows, mire patches on rock outcrops, shores, forest and field margins, roadsides.
- Flowering time: May–June.
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 branches of the eared willow point in different directions giving the shrub a somewhat “messy” general appearance. The older twigs are brownish-grey, usually hairless, and ridged beneath the bark. The young shoots are reddish-brown, fairly delicate, and sparsely hairy or hairless. The eared willow flowers before coming into leaf. It is very common in Southern Finland, and it grows on various kinds of sites.
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.
