Arroyo willow is an erect, branching shrub or small tree growing to 30' with smooth bark and yellowish to dark brown twigs that are tomentose becoming glabrous.  The leaves are alternate, oblanceolate, 2-1/2" to 4" long and about 3/4" wide, acute- to obtuse-tipped, dark green and glabrous above, pubescent to glabrate and glaucous beneath, subrevolute, and nearly entire.  There are staminate and pistillate catkins on separate trees, and they mostly appear before the leaves, either sessile or on leafy shoots.  There are no sepals or petals.  The staminate flowers have two stamens with filaments glabrous and united below.  Winter bud scales are blunt-tipped.  The fruit is a 2-valved capsule.  Arroyo willow is quite a variable species, and is common along stream banks and in dry stream beds, in cismontane to montane plant communities to an elevation of 7000' and occasional on the desert, blooming from February to April.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Salix 2) lasiolepis.
Pronunciation: SAY-lix las-ee-oh-LEP-is.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.