Florida willow

Stems: branches red-brown, pubescent to glabrescent; branchlets yellow-brown or red-brown, sparsely velvety or pubescent. Leaves: stipules absent or rudimentary on early ones, foliaceous on late ones, apex rounded; petiole (shallowly grooved adaxially), 13-20 mm, puberulent or velvety adaxially; largest medial blade narrowly oblong, oblong, lanceolate, or narrowly ovate, 100-170 × 38-55 mm, 2.5-3(-4) times as long as wide, base rounded, convex, or subcordate (cordate on larger leaves), margins serrulate or spinulose-serrulate, apex acute, acuminate, or convex, abaxial surface sparsely tomentose, hairs straight, adaxial highly glossy, sparsely villous or pilose to glabrescent (midrib remaining villous), hairs white and ferruginous; proximal blade margins entire; juvenile blade sparsely pubescent to very densely villous or pilose abaxially, hairs white. Catkins: staminate 29-72 × 12-15 mm, flowering branchlet 1-10 mm; pistillate 50-81 × 17-27 mm, flowering branchlet 5-30 mm; floral bract (tawny, sometimes greenish), 2-3.6 mm, apex rounded, entire, abaxially sparsely hairy, hairs wavy; pistillate bract persistent after flowering. Staminate flowers: abaxial nectary 0.4-0.8 mm, adaxial nectary ovate, 0.5-1.1 mm, nectaries distinct or connate and cup-shaped; stamens 3-7; filaments hairy basally; anthers 0.4-0.5 mm. Pistillate flowers: adaxial nectary square, 0.5-0.9 mm; stipe 3.2-5.6 mm; ovary obclavate to ellipsoidal, (rarely puberulent), beak gradually tapering to styles; ovules 4 per ovary; styles 0.3-0.4 mm; stigmas 0.16-0.17-0.2 mm. Capsules 6-7 mm. 2n = 38.

Flowering mid Feb-early Apr. Swamps, marshy shores of streams in woodlands, calcareous areas, shade tolerant; of conservation concern; 10-40 m; Ala., Fla., Ga.

The closest relatives of Salix floridana are in the Old World sect. Tetraspermae. A detailed discussion of the distribution, taxonomy, and relationships of this uncommon subtropical endemic was given by G. W. Argus (1986).