Expoplant - Acquista online: Salix cinerea -

Generally it is found in shrub form, rarely as a small tree, but usually does not exceed the height of 6 m. It presents irregular stems with tormenting and greyish branches with the bark that forms crested lines of a few centimeters. The leaves are deciduous, simple, bifacial with the lamina that goes from oval lanceolate to oblong lanceolate with dimensions generally of 2 - 4 x 5 - 7 cm, hardly reaches 4 x 10 cm. The upper page is green gray with a slight pubescence, while the inferior page is tomentose and greener. The margin is toothed. The young twigs are covered with a fine brownish down that makes them velvety. It is a dioecious plant that blooms before the issue of the leaves in March or early April. The male catkins are relatively squat (2 x 5 cm) yellow in full bloom, the female ones are more slender (1.5-2 x 6-9 cm) and greenish. The yellow stamens are evident and have a hairy filament at the base. The fruit is a capsule that frees the seeds in May. This willow is widespread throughout Italy up to 1000 m altitude, especially in wet forests, along waterways and in marshy areas with soils characterized by water stagnation, Its early flowering is an important food source for bees. It adapts to landscape solutions in areas with land characterized, in fact, by water stagnations or at the edges of watercourses or ponds.