Salix blakii Görz

Shrubs to 5 m tall. Branchlets brownish, thin, glabrous. Leaves petiolate; leaf blade linear-lanceolate or linear, 4-8 cm × 4-5 mm, both surfaces glabrous, silky when young, abaxially greenish, adaxially dull green, base cuneate, margin entire or denticulate, apex long acuminate; lateral veins obscure. Flowering nearly coetaneous. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin 3-4 cm, elongate in fruit; peduncle 5-10 mm, with lanceolate leaflets; rachis gray tomentose; bracts brownish, long obovate, with 3 veins, abaxially glabrous, basally and marginally downy, completely or partly caducous in fruit. Female flower: ovary conical, gray tomentose, sometimes subglabrous near base, shortly stipitate; style ca. as long as stigma; stigma brown, 2-cleft. Fl. Apr, fr. May.

Moderately tall shrub or small tree, branches brown, glabrous. Leaf petiolate, petiole 1.5-7 mm long. Lamina (1.5)-4-8.5 cm x 3-10 mm, linear-lanceolate to linear, entire to glandular serrulate, hairy becoming glabrous, tip acute, stipules subulate, caducous. Catkin appearing after leaves. Male catkin with peduncle 3-20 mm long with 2-4 leaves. Main inflorescence at anthesis 25-50 x 5-8 mm. Bracts 1.5-3 x 0.8-1 mm. Stamens 2, filaments 4-5 mm long, connate throughout, densely hairy at the base. Anther 0.5 mm long. Female catkin 30-80 x 9-12 mm when mature. Capsule 4-5 mm long, narrowly conical, hairs appressed, silky, style 0.2-0.6 mm long. Stigmas 4 as up right lobes, 0.2-0.5 mm long. Stipe 0.4-1.3 mm long, about twice the length of the gland.

S Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia (Iran)]

Distribution: Pakistan (Chitral), Kashmir, Afghanistan, Kazakstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, China (S. Xinjiang) (F.Zhenfu, Z.Shidong & A.K. Skvortsov l.c.).

Fl. Per.: March-April.

Riverbanks; 500-600 m.

Chitral, Mulkoh Gol, between Nishko and Zindragram, c. 2000 m, saline sandy soil, erect small tree, c. 3 m tall, fruit present, not common, 28.6.1987, A.Ghafoor & S.Omer 3256 (KUH) has long and narrow leaves, different from other specimens. More material is required for further studies of such variants, in order to confirm their status.

Salix linearifolia E. L. Wolf (1903), not Rydberg (1901).

Salix linearifolia E. Wolf in Acta Horti Petrop. 21: 160 1903, non Rydberg (1901); Nazarov in Kom., Fl. USSR 5: 170. 1936; A.K. Skvortsov in Rech.f., Fl. Iran 65: 38. 1969, R.R. Stewart, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. Pak. Kashm. 184. 1972.