Flora of New Zealand Series

golden weeping willow

Medium-sized widespreading tree to c. 12 m high; bark somewhat fissured. Branches and branchlets long and pendulous. Shoots golden yellow, slender, moderately brittle, soon glabrous. Petiole usually < 5 mm long. Buds yellowish brown, hairy. Lvs 4-11 × 0.7-1.5 cm, lanceolate or almost lanceolate, glaucous below, soon becoming glabrous, glandular-serrulate; apex acuminate. Stipules small or minute, not curved at apex. Catkins with ♂ and ♀ fls, the ♀ fls commonest toward the apex, appearing with lvs, on very short leafy shoots, to 5 cm long, narrow-cylindric, slightly curved; rachis villous. Bracts 1.5-2.5 mm long, lanceolate-oblong or lanceolate-elliptic, green, hairy; margins strongly incurved (almost cucullate); apex obtuse or subacute. Glands 0.4-0.7 mm long, ± oblong or ovate-oblong, 2 in ♂ fls, posterior 1 often rudimentary, 1 in ♀ fls. Stamens 2; filaments hairy towards base. ovary glabrous, sessile.

N.; S.: scattered localities throughout.

Origin unknown 1983

Riverbanks, lakesides, pond margins.

FL Sep-Oct.

S. × chrysocoma is widely planted in many parts of N.Z., usually by water. In natural riverside situations it often grows wild with crack and white willows and probably hybridises with them. It is easily recognised amongst other weeping willows by its yellow shoots, the glaucous lower surface of the lvs, and the monoecious catkins. The N.Z. plants apparently belong to one clone. This plant is often known as cv. 'Tristis' of S. alba, and has been known as S. vitellina   cv. 'Pendula'. However, although its status is uncertain, it is more likely to be a hybrid of S. alba and S. babylonica than a form or cv. of S. alba alone. If this parentage is confirmed, the most satisfactory rank for golden weeping willow would be as a cv. of S. × sepulcralis (to which it bears many resemblances), this name having priority over S. × chrysocoma [ see, Meikle, R. D., Watsonia 15(3): 274 (1985)]. For a full discussion of the taxonomy of this and related pendulous tree willows see, Bean, W. J., Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles ed. 8, 4: 303-305 (1980).