Salix purpurea

Purple willow ( Salix purpurea), habitus in the winter.

The purple willow ( Salix purpurea ) is a plant of the genus willow ( Salix). The name Purple Willow is due to the striking red shoots and the initially purple kitten.

Features

The purple willow is a large, upright, dense bushy shrub, reaches the stature heights of up to 6 meters. The branches are bare, brown or purple colored, thin, pliable and tough. The most recent shoots are sometimes covered with a short velvety pubescence, with time they verkahlen. The leaves are on long shoots up to 12 inches long and have their greatest width of 12 to 20 millimeters in the front third, on short shoots up to 7 inches long and 2 inches wide. The leaves are slender lanceolate and short acuminate. Its edge is cut out fine sharp from the center to the blade tip, entire at the base of the leaf. The different design of the leaf blade gradually goes over into each other. The upper leaf surface is green or slightly bluish and dull, the main nerve is yellow, the lower leaf surface is bright and gray-green. Both sides are bare. The length of the petiole is 2 to 5 mm, stipules are not available. The leaves are often arranged on opposite sides.

The kittens are long, slender cylindrical, often against constantly and arcuate. The male catkins are dichtblütig. Stamens and anthers are completely fused together. The anthers are initially purple, yellow in flowering state. The female kitten have a length of up to 4 centimeters. The ovaries are small, stocky, hairy tight and crowded sitting. The scar sits on almost without stylus. The two-colored bract at the base is bright, colored black on the front part, long haired and bearded. The nectary is short club-shaped.

The flowering period is from March to April.

Dissemination

The purple willow is a common throughout Europe Eurasian pasture. You lack in northern Scotland and Scandinavia. It can be found from the plains at altitudes of 1200 meters of watercourses and in low terraces.

More images

Female kitten.

Male kitten.

Kitten.

Documents

• Gunter Steinbach (ed.): shrub shrubs ( Steinbach nature guide ). Mosaik Verlag GmbH, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-576-10560-3.