Plant: shrub; to 2.6 m tall. STEMS: branches red- to yellow-brown, becoming glabrous but remaining pilose at the nodes; branchlets yellow-green, red-brown, or brownish, villous to pilose

Leaves: petioles villous or pubescent becoming glabrous, 3-7.5 mm long; proximal leaves on vegetative branchlets or flowering branchlets gland-dotted or serrulate; young leaves glabrous or pilose; mature blade elliptic to broadly elliptic, 20-50 mm long, 10-31 mm wide, 1.6-3.6 times as long as wide, the lower surface non-glaucous, glabrous or pilose, the upper surface shiny, glabrous or pilose, the base cordate to rounded, the margins flat, glandular-dotted to serrulate, with 7-21 teeth or glands per cm, the apex acute, abruptly short acuminate to obtuse

INFLORESCENCE: coetaneous; floral bracts brown, black, or bicolored, 1-2 mm long with wavy hairs, the apices acute to obtuse.

Flowers: STAMINATE FLOWERS in densely flowered catkins 5-15 mm long; flowering branchlets 1-4 mm long; filaments glabrous; nectary 1, slender or broad, 0.4-0.8 mm long. PISTILLATE FLOWERS in densely flowered catkins 11-40 mm long; flowering branchlets 2-10 mm long; ovaries glabrous; stigmas 0.14-0.36 mm long; styles 0.5-1.2 mm long; stipes 0.2-1 mm long; nectary slender or broad, 0.5-1mm long, equal to or exceeding stipe length

Fruit: lanceolate or ovate

Misc: Subalpine; sedge meadows and wet drainage ways; 2800-3300 m (8500-10000 ft); May-Jun

REFERENCES: Argus, George W. 1995. SalicaceaePart 2. Salix. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. 29(1): 39