Salix × dasyclados Wimm.

This controversial willow does not occur in Britain, either wild or naturalised. It is represented in commerce by the male clone ‘Grandis’, originally distributed as “Salix aquatica grandis”. It is a large shrub with stout stems, at first velvety, becoming glabrous or almost so. Leaves oblong-elliptic, acute, to 6 or 7 in. long, 1 in. or slightly more wide, sparsely silky beneath even when young; petioles to 1 in. long, much expanded at the base when subtending the closely set, downy catkin-buds. Stipules conspicuous, broad based, more or less abruptly narrowed at the tip, withering before falling. The handsome catkins, borne before the leaves, are about 2 in. long. ‘Grandis’ is not the same as the male clone in commerce as S. dasyclados simply. This, a hybrid of uncertain identity, is of extraordinary vigour, making seasonal stems 10 ft or so long when young and pruned. The catkins appear in late winter or early spring, sometimes in autumn.