Salix eleagnos Scop.
bitter willow
Small tree or large shrub to c. 6 m high, with rough bark; habit dense and bushy. Shoots dark reddish or brownish purple, hairy when young, rather brittle. Buds reddish brown, hairy. Petiole < 5 mm long. Lamina 5-14 × 0.3-1 cm, linear or linear-lanceolate, dark shining green above, with white woolly tomentum below, bitter to taste; margins minutely glandular-serrulate, often revolute; apex attenuate. Stipules minute or 0. Catkins ♀, appearing before lvs, cylindric, ± erect, 2-3 cm long; rachis densely hairy. Bracts 1.7-2.5 mm long, ± oblong, very pale green with uppermost part soon becoming brown, hairy, especially around apex; apex rounded to emarginate. Gland 1, c. 0.3-0.5 mm long, broad- or triangular-oblong, sometimes wider than long. Ovary sessile, glabrous.
N.: Poverty Bay, Hawke's Bay; S.: Westland, Canterbury.
S. and C. Europe 1968
Riverbanks, generally uncommon or rare.
FL Aug-Oct.
S. elaeagnos has been planted on riverbanks for erosion control in a number of places and has since spread naturally. It is represented in N.Z. by a single ♀ clone which has not hybridised with other spp. The bitter salicin in the tissues renders it unattractive to stock, the main reason why it is used for erosion control. The only sp. with which S. elaeagnos is likely to be confused is S. viminalis. However, S. viminalis differs in having the lvs silky below and not bitter to taste, the shoots green and the ovary hairy. S. elaeagnos has been previously recorded in N.Z. as S. incana.
