匙叶柳 chi ye liu

Salix spathulifolia f. lobata C. F. Fang & J. Q. Wang.

Shrubs. Branches brown, glabrous. Buds yellowish brown, ovoid-globose, glabrous. Petiole to 1.5 cm; leaf blade obovate-oblong, narrowly obovate-elliptic, or broadly oblanceolate, rarely elliptic, 4-9 × 1.5-2.5(-3.5) cm, abaxially pale or pruinose, at first villous, glabrescent, adaxially dark green, pilose when young, glabrescent, base broadly cuneate, margin irregularly serrulate, rarely subentire, apex acute or sharply obtuse; veins raised abaxially. Flowering serotinous. Catkins 2-4 cm × 6-8 mm; peduncle with 2-4 leaflets; bracts broadly elliptic, ca. 2 mm, abaxially downy proximally, ciliate, apex rounded-truncate or irregularly shallowly dentate. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands rarely lobed; stamens 2, free; filaments downy proximally, ca. 3 mm. Fruiting catkin to 6.5 cm. Female flower: gland adaxial, ovate; ovary ovoid, downy, sessile; style slender, 2-parted, twisted; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule ovoid-oblong, grayish white pubescent, sessile or shortly stipitate. Fl. Jun, fr. Jul.

* Mountain slopes; 1800-2900 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi, N Sichuan

Salix jenisseensis (F. Schmidt) Floderus (from Russia) is very similar; it differs as follows: bracts often brownish or blackish at apex; glands quadrangular, not exceeding stipe; style only slightly cleft; ovary shortly stipitate. Salix spathulifolia var. glabra C. Wang & C. F. Fang ex T. Y. Ding, Fl. Qinghai. 1: 506. 1997, was described from Qinghai (Minhe). It is said to differ from var. spathulifolia in having a glabrous ovary.