Salix aurita

Ear willow ( Salix aurita )

The ear - grazing or sage willow ( Salix aurita ) is a plant of the genus pastures within the family of pasture plants.

Description

The ear - willow is a deciduous, multi-stemmed, well-branched shrub, rarely a small tree. It reaches stature heights of 2 to 3 meters. The gray- brown bark of the branches is initially pubescent tomentose. While the bark is smooth, and its color changes later to brown to blackish. The winter buds are brown to red, glabrous, ovate and 3-5 mm long. The wintry branches lack a terminal bud.

The inverted egg-shaped leaves are up to 5 cm long, 2.5 cm wide, dark green above, hairy beneath whitish to blue-green on both sides. The blade tip is usually rotated, the leaf margin is irregularly coarsely toothed and the petioles are 4-10 mm long. The permanent side leaves are kidney-shaped.

The ear - willow is dioecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( dioecious ). The inconspicuous flowers appear before the leaves in kitten -like inflorescences. The male catkins are up to 2.5 cm long and the female to 3 cm long. The ear - willow blooms from March to May the fruit ripening falls in May and June.

The vielsamige capsule fruit is 7-8 mm long.

Distribution and location

The natural range of the ear - grazing covers Europe and western Asia. In Central Europe the ear - grazing from the lowlands grows up to 1800 m in the northern Alps.

Salix aurita prefers moist, base- and nährsalzarme sand to Sandlehmböden. It is commonly found in fens, marshes and source of grave edges. The light- requiring ear - grazing often grows in the free state, but also associated with goat willow (Salix caprea ), downy birch (Betula pubescens), gray alder ( Alnus incana ), black alder ( Alnus glutinosa) and alder buckthorn ( Frangula alnus ).

Swell

• Ulrich Hecker: BLV Manual trees and shrubs. Munich 2006, ISBN 3-405-15876-1