Salix × meyeriana Rostk.

This handsome willow is a hybrid between S. pentandra and S. fragilis, and has been found wild in Britain, as well as on the continent, in places inhabited by the parent species. In general appearance it very much resembles S. pentandra. The following distinctions, however, exist: the leaf is thinner, more slender, pointed, and sometimes glaucous beneath, and the tree is usually of larger size; the male flowers have fewer (three or four) stamens, and the scale is more hairy; the female catkins are more slender and more tapering, and the seed-vessels longer-stalked and more cylindrical. It is worth growing for its vigorous habit and its fine glossy foliage. Its leaves are oval inclined to ovate, or obovate, 11⁄2 to 41⁄2 in. long and 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. wide, quite glabrous; the marginal teeth fine, regular, glandular.

The willow that received an A.M. in 1931 as ?S. × meyeriana was not this hybrid but most probably a form of S. daphnoides.

S. × ehrhartiana Sm. S. pentandra × S. alba – As might be expected from the parentage, this hybrid is similar to S. × meyeriana, but the influence of S. alba shows in the hairiness of the young stems and leaves, and the almost sessile ovaries. It occurs very rarely in Britain and is by no means common on the continent. The British plants are all male, and probably planted.