Salix humilis – Prairie Willow
Salix humilis – Prairie Willow

This shrub is 2-8′ tall, often branching near the base and toward the tips of older stems. Woody stems are terete and variably colored – usually some shade of yellowish tan, brown, or gray. Young woody stems are often short-pubescent, but they become glabrous with age. New shoots are light green and short-pubescent. Alternate leaves occur along young stems and shoots. The leaf blades are 1¾-4″ long and ¼-¾” across; they are narrowly lanceolate, oblanceolate, or oblong-elliptic in shape and smooth to slightly crenate along their margins. The margins are often revolute (curved downward) as well. The upper surface of the leaf blades is medium green or grayish green and glabrous to sparsely short-pubescent, while the lower surface (for this variety of Prairie Willow) is short-pubescent and sometimes whitened. The petioles are ¼-½” in length and short-pubescent. At the base of the petioles, lanceolate stipules are sometimes found.

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