Will and Jess, I am surprised that all the possibilities Jess gave are european! Jess, you are right, S. purpurea and S. pentandra can be excluded for sure.
The leaves strogly resemble those of S. caprea. To be sure, I just picked one twig from streetside 100 metres away from where I live (in Germany). S. caprea is a very common species throughout Europe in the north to Polar See and in the south to the Mediterranean mountains (and in the east to eastern Asia). The trunk of S. caprea can become fairly large as in Will's specimen, and S. caprea trees can be quite tall for Salix (the tallest measured specimen in Finland is 24.5 metres (80 feet) tall). Hairiness of the buds varies from one subspecies/varietas to another. Some are without hairs, some with hairs, and some first with and then without. What do not resemble S. caprea, are the branches: in Will's photos the branches seem to be smooth, and as I already wrote, those of S. caprea are usually consipuously striped because the bark cracks vertically. S. cinerea resembles S. caprea, but my understanding is that S. cinerea becomes never so large but it is a shrub. There is subsp. oleifolia which becomes to be a small tree, but the undersides of its leaves should be thinly red-brown hairy. The leaf margins of S. cinerea are also toothed. One possibility is that it is a hybrid. Perhaps between S. caprea and some of your native species. As we know, hybrids are quite common in genus Salix. Are there close relatives of S. caprea in your flora? Kouta --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
