Heartleaf Willow

Buds and twigs are eaten by several species of birds, including pine grossbeaks and sharp-tailed grouse. Animals using the young buds or twigs are beavers, cottontail rabbits, elk, fox and gray squirrels, meadow mice, moose, snowshoe hares, and white-tailed deer. (Weatherbee, 2006) Badly attacked by the "oyster scale". (Peattie, 1930)

This plant and synonym italicized and indented below are listed by the U.S. federal government or a state. Common names are from state and federal lists. In Illinois Salix syrticola, sand-dune willow is listed as Endangered. In New York sand dune willow is listed as Endangered. In Wisconsin sand dune willow is listed as Endangered. (USDA PLANTS, 2009)

It flowers late May and June. (Weatherbee, 2006) The flowers appear when the leaves flush out. (Weatherbee, 2006) Flowers appearing with the leaves in May. (Peattie, 1930)

In the northern Great Lakes of the USA. It is also found in Nova Scotia, Labrador, Quebec, and Newfoundland, on the shores of Hudson Bay, across northern Ontario. Its range also extends from northern Maine to Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. (Weatherbee, 2006)

USA: IL , IN , ME , MD , MA , MI , NJ , NY , OH , PA , WI (NPIN, 2007)

Canada: NL , NS , ON , QC (NPIN, 2007)

NORTHERN AMERICA

Eastern Canada: Canada - Newfoundland, Ontario, Quebec (USDA GRIN, 2003)

Northeastern U.S.A.: United States - Indiana [n.w.], Michigan [shores], New York [n.] (USDA GRIN, 2003)

North-Central U.S.A.: United States - Illinois [n.e.], Wisconsin (USDA GRIN, 2003)

Willows rely on wind to spread pollen from the male to the female flowers. When the shrubs are in full flower, it is easy to spot the difference between the male and female plants. After the pollen has been shed, the male pollen structures wither and fall off, and the female ovaries plump up with ripening seeds. The dense hairs on the leaves protect the plant from dessication due to the wind and the challenges of extreme temperatures. All willows have one scale per bud and are dioecious (sexes on separate plants). (Weatherbee, 2006)

Its native habitat is aquatic in fresh water, and along lakeshores. (NPIN, 2007) Tends to be found in groups of shrubby plants partially buried in open, shifting sands. It is primarily restricted to dunes and sandy shores and is seldom found inland. It is equally likely to occur in wetlands and non-wetlands. This plant occurs almost exclusively in pre-settlement conditions. (Weatherbee, 2006) A sand-binder on the high dunes and on the sands of Lake Michigan, typically close to the shore. (Peattie, 1930)

It is a perennial. (NPIN, 2007)

Salix interior (sandbar willow) and Salix myricoides (blueleaf willow) are likely to be encountered on beaches as well. Salix interior (sandbar willow) has smaller leaves with a shallowly scalloped space between the short teeth, and is also found inland in a variety of wet habitats. Salix myricoides (blueleaf willow) has glabrous (hairless) leaves that are egg-shaped, may be larger, and have a glaucous (bluish-white) coating, and it is rarely found inland. (Weatherbee, 2006)

Overall It is a shrub. (NPIN, 2007) It is a coarse, clonal shrub that grows low to medium-low. (Weatherbee, 2006) It is a low, spreading, and bushy shrub. (Peattie, 1930)

Flowers are pink. (NPIN, 2007) As in all willows, male and female flowers are formed into catkins and are dioecious (separate male and female plants). The pistillate catkins (female spikes of tiny flowers) produce plumose (feathery), wind-dispersed seeds. The staminate catkins (male spikes of tiny flowers) have two stamens (male parts) that produce pollen. Beneath the stamens are long, hairy, dark brown to black scales. (Weatherbee, 2006) The catkins are slender with pilose (furry) pale brown, brown, or black scales. There are two stamens. Stigmas are half as long as the style. (Peattie, 1930)

Fruit The capsule is conic-rostrate, smooth, and reddish. (Peattie, 1930)

Leaves are elongated and ovular with a tapered tip and very hairy when young. They are densely matted and grayish-white in color. Petioles (leaf stems) are stout, pubescent, and slightly clasping at the base. Stipules (a pair of structures found at the base of some leaves) are heart to kidney shaped, and tipped with glands. Stipules resemble tiny leaves at the base of the leaf axil (where the side stem emerges from the main stem). The hairy leaves are glandularly toothed, with a tapered tip and a rounded or heart-shaped base. Both sides of the leaf are green and woolly, with lengthwise nerves (veins) showing beneath. (Weatherbee, 2006) The stipules are showy, circular, or half-heart-shaped to subovate. The leaves are green on both sides, being dark green above. Leaves are ovate or narrowly to broadly lanceolate, and are finely and closely serrate or serrulate. Young leaves are puberulent (minutely hairy) to silvery-silky with a dense lanate (woolly) pubescence, persistently so on the under surface till late in the season. Mature leaves are strongly veiny, rounded, or cordate at base, and cuspidate-acuminate (ending in a sharp and stiff point or cusp) at tip. (Peattie, 1930)

Stems are very hairy when young. They are densely matted and grayish-white in color. (Weatherbee, 2006) The stems are bushy, and gray. Twigs are short, stout, grayish, and pubescent. (Peattie, 1930)

Plant is 1-3 m (39"-10') high. (Weatherbee, 2006) Plant may be 1-6 m. tall. (Peattie, 1930)

Flowers Pistillate catkins are 3-8 cm (1 1/8-3") long; staminate catkins are 2-4 1/2 cm (3/4-1 3/4") long. (Weatherbee, 2006) Male catkins are 2-4 cm long and female catkins are finally 6-8 cm long. (Peattie, 1930)

Leaves Petioles are 4-8 mm (1/8-3/8") long; stipules are 6-15 mm (1/4-5/8") long; leaves are 4-6 cm (1 1/2-2 1/2") long and 1 1/2-3 cm (1/2-1 1/8") wide. (Weatherbee, 2006)

The bark is used to treat blisters and bruises, for relief from colds, and to aid digestion and improve the appetite. (Weatherbee, 2006)

Salix cordata, the sand dune willow, furry willow or heartleaf willow, is a perennial shrub that grows 3 to 12 feet (0.91 to 3.66 m) tall; plants taller than 6 feet (1.8 m) are rare. The plant is native to the northeast regions of the North American continent; it is found on sand dunes, river banks, and lake shores in sandy, silty or gravelly soils.