balsam willow

not listed

NNR - Unranked

SNR - Unranked

not listed

OBL - Obligate wetland

FACW - Facultative wetland

FACW - Facultative wetland

Balsam willow is a tall, deciduous shrub that rises on multiple stems. It can be 16″ to 16′ in height and 1½″ in diameter at the base, though in Minnesota it is usually less than 10′ tall and often less than 6′ tall . It occasionally forms colonies by layering of the lower branches.

The stems are erect. First year branches are minutely hairy to almost hairless. They are greenish to yellowish at first, becoming reddish and glossy. Second-year branches are reddish-brown, glossy or somewhat rough, and hairless. Secondary branches (branchlets) are red to reddish-brown, yellowish-brown, or yellowish, glossy, and hairless. They may be weakly covered with a whitish, waxy bloom (glaucous). Primary branches are not glaucous.

The leaves are alternate, narrowly oblong, oblong, elliptic, or broadly elliptic. The largest mid-stem leaves are 1½″ to 4″ long, and ¾″ to 1½″ wide, 1.5 to 3.2 times as long as wide. They are on ¼″ to ¾″ long leaf stalks. The leaf stalks are often reddish, convex to flat, and sometimes shallowly grooved on top. They do not have a pair of glands where they attach to the blade. At the base of the leaf stalk is a pair of minute, leaf-like appendages (stipules), but these fall off early and are often missing. The leaf blade is heart-shaped or rounded at the base and tapered at the tip with straight or convex sides at the tip. The upper surface is dark green, hairless, and glossy. The lower surface is pale bluish-gray, dull, glaucous, and hairless. The margins are minutely toothed or strongly wavy, and may be flat or rolled under. Young, unfolding leaves are reddish, translucent, and hairless or sparsely covered with white hairs.

Male and female flowers are borne in cylindrical clusters (catkins) on separate plants. Male catkins appear just before the leaves. They are ¾″ to 2½″ long and ¼″ to ⅝″ wide. They appear at the end of a leafy, 1 ⁄32″ to ¼″ long branchlet. Female catkins appear with the leaves. They are 1″ to 3⅜″ long and 5 ⁄16″ to ¾″ wide. They appear at the end of a leafy, 1 ⁄16″ to ⅞″ long branchlet.

The sepals and petals are reduced to a single, minute, nectar-secreting gland (nectary). Male flowers have 2 separated stamens with white filaments and yellow anthers.

The fruit is a hairless, 3 ⁄16″ to 5 ⁄16″ long capsule. Seeds are released early mid-June to early mid-July, and are dispersed by wind.

16″ to 160″

Yellow anthers

Wet. Tamarack swamps, black spruce swamps, shrub swamps, marshes, floating peat mats, lakeshores, and riverbanks.

Mid-May to mid-June

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 28, 29, 30.

Native