Salix exigua
Salix exigua is the vigorous North American native sandbar willow with textural, silky, gray-green leaves.
Salix exigua, known as the sandbar or coyote willow, is native to much of North America. It is a cold-hardy, suckering shrub that forms thickets 15-20 feet tall of slender gray-green branches. The textural foliage is narrow, lance-shaped, grayish-green, and has silky white hairs when young. In spring, male and female catkins are produced on separate — dioecious — plants around the same time that the leaves emerge. First Nations people used the flexible willow stems for baskets, arrow shafts, scoops and fish traps and the bark and leaves for medicinal purposes. Excellent for stream stabilization and soil erosion as the plant suckers profusely and forms an extensive root system. Both drought resistant and tolerant of flooding. Grow for its beautiful fluttering leaves, perfect for bog gardens, along ponds and streams. Male flowers provide pollen for bees. The foliage is a larval host for many native butterfly and moth species. Photo: Wikimedia.
Common Name: Sandbar Willow
Family: Salicaceae (The Willow Family)
Zone Hardiness: 2-7
Light: Full Sun
Height: 15-25'
Width: 8-10'
Primary Bloom Colour: Yellow
Secondary Bloom Colour: Green
Bloom Time: Spring
Foliage Colour: Green, Silver
Class: Deciduous
Type: Shrub
Soil Moisture: Moist, Average, Wet , Dry
Stem Colour:
Fragrance: No
Berries:
Benefits: Bees, Butterflies
Deer Resistant: No
BC Native: Yes
Native Habitat: Wet habitats including sloughs, marshes, stream and riverbanks, lake shores, sandbars, ditches, flood plains and roadsides from Alaska and BC east to New Brunswick and south through much of the central and western US though mostly absent from the coasts.
Award: AGM
Geographical Origin: North America
