| General Description | Salix bebbiana is a fast-growing deciduous shrub/tree usually multi-stemmed and found in moist soils. It has unique but variable leaves that are much rounder than its relative willows. |
| ID Characteristic | Diamond Willows usually appear as multi-stemmed shrubs or sometimes as a short tree. The leaves are narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, with grey-white fuzzy undersides. Leaf veins are prominent to the touch. Older Diamond Willows have trunks with diamond shapes from fungal infection. |
| Shape | Salix bebbiana branches upright, then spreads into a broad round crown of slender branches. Depending on the location, multiple trees together form thickets easily overtaking open areas. |
| Landscape | While not used for landscapes, this specimen has tremendous value in its ability to stabilize soils. This tree is adaptable to all soil textures, so it is highly valuable for rehabilitating lands that are moist with poor soil conditions. These trees also provide canopy cover and protection to many birds and mammals. They also provide shade over water like ponds and rivers for fish and other aquatic life. Further potential for restoration has been shown by the plant’s ability to naturally occupy mine spoil piles and other human destroyed soils. However, it has poor wintering ability on oil sand tailings. |
| Propagation | Cuttings should be used for cultivation as the seed is only viable for a few days and dry seed storage is very difficult with viability declining after only 10 days. Cuttings should be about 1 cm in diameter, and 30 cm to 50 cm long. Cuttings should be taken in the spring from dormant 2-4 year old trees and put into moist soils. Cuttings are especially susceptible to rodent damage. Anticipate cutting roots and shoots to appear after 10 to 20 days. |
| Cultivation | This is a very hardy specimen, thriving in any soil condition as long as it’s moist. It grows in full sun exposure to partial shade, and ideally in soil with a pH between 5.5 to 7.5. |
| Pests | Haploporus odorus (Diamond Willow Fungus) is a parasitic fungal infection that causes diamond-shaped patches on the main stem of the bark in living trees, eventually killing the tree. On living older trees the Diamond Willow Fungus blooms as large white fruiting bodies on the trunks. The fungus is known to infect many trees of genus Salix but is most commonly found on species bebbiana.
The willow sawfly is a danger to young trees and cuttings.
Young trees and shrubs are susceptible to browsing and grazing animals.
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| Habitat | Naturally occurs in moist to wet forests, wetlands, and stream banks. This species is highly adaptive, thriving in heavy clay soils to rocky soils. With an elevation range of 0 m to 3300 m, this tree thrives in locations all across Canada and the northern United States. |
| Bark/Stem Description | Usually a multi-stem trunk, young bark is reddish brown to grey. Mature bark is greyish brown and furrowed. Twigs are purplish-red and marked with sprinkled raised lenticels they are rough because of raised leaf scars. Twigs become light reddish-brown in the second year. |
| Flower/Leaf Bud Description | Winter buds are shiny chestnut-brown oblong shaped with a blunt point. |
| Leaf Description | This species has a very variable leaf form. It has a simple leaf with an alternate leaf arrangement. The blade shape is usually elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, between 3 cm and 7 cm long attached to a 3 mm to 10 mm petiole. The leaves are often but not always toothed, usually near the basal part. The undersides of leaves are distinctly veined in a mesh pattern. Young leaves are hairy and the petiole retains the hair after the leaves mature. Small stipules between 1 mm and 5 mm fall away early. |
| Flower Description | Salix bebbiana flowers in spring, from April to early June, producing yellow to straw-coloured catkins on short leafy shoots. Each plant has only female or male flowers, and they need pollinators to achieve pollination. Male catkins are short cylinders densely flowered with two stamens in each floret. Female catkins are longer and loosely flowered with long hairs to protect the ovary. |
| Fruit Description | Fruit capsules are generally 6-8 mm long. The cylindrical shape gradually narrows into a long beak with sparse appressed hairs. |
| Colour Description | Leaves are dull green above and whitish, silvery-blueish underneath. The leaf colours have little change through the seasons. The new growth colour in twigs is reddish-purple fading darker with age. Bark colour varies from reddish to olive green or grey tinged with red. |
| Texture Description | A medium-textured plant in its youth grows into a coarse-textured tree with age. Its leaves are toothed and hairy, and twigs are textured with scaring and lenticels. With age, the bark deeply furrows and many older trees have diamond patterns on their bark from fungal infections. |