紫柳 zi liu

Trees to 13 m tall. One-year-old branchlets dull brown, pilose when young, glabrescent. Stipules ovate, caducous, those of shoots large, reniform; petiole 7-10 mm, pubescent, usually eglandular; leaf blade elliptic or broadly elliptic to oblong, rarely elliptic-lanceolate, 4-5(-6) × 2-3 cm, abaxially pale, adaxially green, slightly red when young, base cuneate to rounded, margin crenate or crenate-serrate, apex acute to acuminate. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin pedunculate, laxly flowered, (2.5-)6 cm × 6-7 mm; peduncle with 3(-5) leaflets; bracts elliptic, ca. 1 mm, downy and ciliate proximally. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands often lobed; stamens 3-5(or 6). Female catkin 2-4 cm × ca. 5 mm, to 6-8 cm in fruit, laxly flowered; peduncle and rachis 1-2 cm, white pubescent; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: adaxial gland broad, thick, semiclasping stipe, lobed on both sides, abaxial gland small; ovary narrowly ovoid or ovoid, glabrous, long stipitate; style absent; stigma short, 2-cleft. Capsule ovoid-oblong. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. May.

* Plains, riverbanks. Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang