Salix purpurea L.
S. helix L., S. alba sensu Emb. & Maire, non L.
Eng.: Purple willow, purpleosier willow, purple osier. Spa.: Sauce, sarga fina, sarga colorada. Fre.: Saule pourpré, osier rouge. Ara.: Khiblal. Tam.: Talezzazt-n-amar, ziliz, ickki, safsaf.
Deciduous shrub, dioecious, up to 6 m in height, very ramose, erect. Stems smooth, whitish, brown, yellowish or purple, glabrous. Branchlets green or purple, glabrescent. Buds glabrous. Leaves 5-11.5 × 0.8-1.2 cm, opposite, rarely alternate, deciduous, linear-lanceolate, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, ending in an acute tip, with entire margin in the lower half, ± dentate on the upper part; somewhat hairy when young, turning glabrous on both sides at maturity; green on the upper side, slightly glaucous on the underside. Petiole very short, 0.2-0.5 cm, glabrous. Stipules absent. Inflorescence in erect aments, generally opposite, precocious, sessile, with rachis hairy and bracts yellow-green, lighter at the base, with brownish-black apex. Male flowers with 1 nectary and 2 stamens with filaments completely fused, so it appears to have 1 stamen with 2 anthers, which are first red and later blackish. Female flowers with 1 nectary and a hairy and sessile ovary. Fruit an ovoid capsule, glabrous, dehiscent in 2 valves. Seeds surrounded by abundant white lanose hairs. 2n = 38.
Flowering:
January to March.
Fruiting:
March-April.
Habitat:
Banks of rivers, streams, canals, lakes and other wetlands, up to 2,500 m. In thermomediterranean to supramediterranean bioclimatic floors.
Distribution:
Palaearctic. In North Africa it is frequently found across the mountains of the Mediterranean region, reaching towards the S up to the Anti-Atlas and the Saharan Atlas (in Argelia); absent from the Algerian-Moroccan high plateaux region.
Conservation status:
Relatively common and widespread species, not considered threatened. Currently, in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is evaluated as Least Concern (LC) at a global level (Rivers, Mark & Khela, 2017).. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Least Concern (LC).
