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Scientific Name
Synonyms
Family
Common Names
Origin
Cultivation
Naturalised Distribution
Habitat
Habit
Distinguishing Features
Stems and Leaves
Flowers and Fruit
Reproduction and Dispersal
Environmental Impact
Legislation
Management
Similar Species
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Click on images to enlarge

habit in summer (Photo: Trevor James)

habit with flowers in early spring (Photo: Rob and Fiona Richardson)

multiple trunks on mature plant (Photo: Rob and Fiona Richardson)

close-up of hairy younger stems with young winter buds (Photo: Greg Jordan)

close-up of young leaves in spring (Photo: Trevor James)

relatively broad leaves (Photo: Greg Jordan)

upper and lower surfaces of older leaves (Photo: Trevor James)

winter buds and young flower clusters (Photo: Rob and Fiona Richardson)

male flower clusters (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of male flowers (Photo: Trevor James)

female flower clusters (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of female flowers (Photo: Trevor James)

immature fruit (Photo: Rob and Fiona Richardson)

close-up of immature fruit (Photo: Trevor James)

mature fruit releasing their seeds (Photo: Rob and Fiona Richardson)

close-up of seeds with silky hairs (Photo: Rob and Fiona Richardson)

Salix cinerea

Scientific Name

Salix cinerea L.

Synonyms

Salix atrocinerea Brot.
Salix caprea L. (misapplied)
Salix cinerea L. subsp. cinerea
Salix cinerea L. subsp. oleifolia (Sm.) Macreight

Family

Salicaceae

Common Names

common sallow, gray sallow, gray willow, grey sallow, grey willow, grey-leaved sallow, large gray willow, pussy willow, rusty sallow

Origin

Native to most of Europe, Russia and western Asia (i.e. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan).

Cultivation

Grey sallow (Salix cinerea) has been widely planted around waterbodies and along waterways in the temperate regions of Australia, mainly to prevent soil erosion.

Naturalised Distribution

Widely naturalised in south-eastern Australia (i.e. in many parts of eastern New South Wales, in the ACT, in Victoria and Tasmania, and in south-eastern South Australia). Also sparingly naturalised in the sub-coastal districts of south-eastern Queensland.

Naturalised overseas in North America (i.e. eastern Canada and eastern USA) and New Zealand.

Habitat

A weed of waterways, riparian vegetation, lake edges, billabongs, swamps and wetlands in wetter temperate regions.

Habit

A shrub or small spreading tree usually growing up to 8 m tall, but occasionally reaching up to 12 m tall. It produces many upright (i.e. erect) branching stems from near ground level.

Distinguishing Features

Stems and Leaves

The bark on the stems is smooth and greyish-brown in colour, but eventually becomes fissured with age. Younger stems are green, greenish-brown or dark reddish-brown in colour and may be hairy (i.e. pubescent) or virtually hairless (i.e. sub-glabrous). 

The alternately arranged leaves are borne on short stalks (i.e. petioles) 2-5 mm long. These leaves (3-9 cm long and 1.5-4 cm wide) are oval (i.e. elliptic) or egg-shaped in outline (i.e. obovate) with entire to finely toothed (i.e. serrulate) margins and shortly-pointed tips (i.e. acute apices). Their upper surfaces are bright green and sparsely hairy (i.e. sparsely pubescent), while their undersides are pale green or bluish-green (i.e. glaucous) and more densely hairy (i.e. densely pubescent).

Flowers and Fruit

Separate male and female flowers are usually borne on separate plants (i.e. this species is dioecious), but may sometimes be present on different parts of the same plant (i.e. rarely monoecious). Both types of flowers are inconspicuous and are densely arranged in stalkless clusters (i.e. sessile catkins) in the upper leaf forks (i.e. axils). They do not have any sepals or petals, but each flower is subtended by a small bract. The male (i.e. staminate) flowers are green or greenish-yellow in colour and borne in relatively short clusters (2-3 cm long and about 2 cm across). They are about 10 mm long and consist of two or more yellow stamens. The female (i.e. pistillate) flowers are mostly green in colour and are usually borne in slightly longer clusters (2-4 cm long). They consist of an ovary topped with a stigma. Flowers are produced before the new leaves in early spring.

The fruit is a small hairy capsule (up to 10 mm long) containing tiny seeds. These seeds, which are topped with a tuft of silky hairs, are shed about four weeks after flowering.

Reproduction and Dispersal

This species reproduces by seed and vegetatively via the rooting of detached twigs or branches.

The light and fluffy seeds are easily dispersed by wind and water, while twigs and branches may be spread during floods, by machinery, during removal, and in dumped garden waste.

Environmental Impact

Grey sallow (Salix cinerea) is regarded as a significant environmental weed in Victoria, and as an environmental weed in the ACT, Tasmania and New South Wales. It is one of the willows that, as a group, are regarded as a Weed of National Significance (WoNS). These species are primarily of concern along waterways, in wetlands and around other waterbodies. They compete strongly for space, water and nutrients, eventually displacing the native vegetation in the habitats they invade.

Unlike many of the other willows, grey sallow (Salix cinerea) also invades other habitats away from water, including heathlands, heathy woodlands, alpine and sub-alpine vegetation, the understorey or mature pine plantations.

For more on the environmental impact of willows (Salix spp.) in Australia, see Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment Landcare Note entitled "Willows along watercourses: their impact compared to natives", which is avialable online at http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au.

Legislation

This species is declared under legislation in the following states and territories:

Management

For information on the management of this species see the following resources:

Similar Species

Two forms of Salix cinerea are present in Australia (i.e. Salix cinerea subsp. cinerea and Salix cinerea subsp. oleifera), but these are not always recognised as being separate entities. They can be distinguished from each other by the followng differences:

Grey sallow (Salix cinerea) is also confused with some of the other willows (Salix spp.) with shrubby habits, and hybrids between this and other species can be extremely difficult to separate from each other. To distinguish between these, see one of the texts specifically developed for the identification of willows (Salix spp.) in Australia: