Salix triandra L.

A shrub or small tree up to 30 ft high, of erect habit; bark flaking, brown when freshly exposed; young shoots glabrous, or downy and soon becoming glabrous, angled or furrowed. Leaves quite glabrous on both surfaces, lance-shaped, rounded or wedge-shaped at the base, tapered to a fine point, finely toothed, 2 to 4 in. long, 5⁄8 to 1 in. wide, dark green above, green or glaucous beneath; stalk 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long, with a few glands near the apex. Stipules well developed on sterile shoots, 3⁄16 to 3⁄8 in. wide, usually persistent. Catkins produced in April or May (or sporadically throughout the summer) on short leafy shoots; scales yellowish, thinly hairy, deciduous. Male catkins up to 21⁄2 in. long; stamens three, anthers yellow, filaments hairy at the base. Female catkins shorter than the male; ovary flask-shaped, glabrous, stalked, with sessile stigmas.

S. triandra is of wide distribution in temperate Eurasia. It is one of the most valuable of the basket-willows, and has been so widely planted that its natural distribution in the British Isles is uncertain, but it is probably genuinely native in south-east and parts of central England in wet, low-lying places. The osiers known under the trade names of ‘Black Hollander’, ‘Black Italian’, ‘Black Mauls’, ‘French’, ‘Jelstiver’, ‘Mottled Spaniards’, ‘Pomeranian’, all belong to this species.