Willow, Coyote - S. exigua

Creeping-type; Commonly referred to as sandbar willow and dusky willow. This complex has been significantly condensed with new taxonomic methods. Generally, the complex is strongly suckering producing large thickets of slender stemmed willows. Basically, there are two subspecies are now recognized:

• Salix exigua ssp. exigua.
  Shrub up to 8 meters (26 feet) tall with narrow gray-green or silvery pubescent leaves that are entire with short petioles. Subspecies exigua is found below 1830 meters (6000 feet) in the Wyoming big sagebrush zone on all soil textures. It prefers disturbed areas on stream edges and moist well-drained benches and bottomlands. Most often found with Pacific and yellow willow, redosier dogwood, current species, black cottonwood, and water birch.
• Salix exigua ssp. melanopsis.
  Shrubs up to 4 meters (13 feet) tall with narrow toothed leaves that are glaucous below. Typically found on stream edges. Range is above subspecies exigua and below 2130 meters (7000 feet). Generally found in open riparian corridors within forested areas and in Mountain big sagebrush dominated valleys below the treeline. Prefers sandy to gravelly soils and bars in the channel. Most often found with Drummond and Booth willow.

One variety is recognized because of its floral similarities to Salix exigua ssp. exigua and vegetative similarities to Salix exigua ssp. melanopsis. This variety is Salix exigua ssp. melanopsis var. tenerrima. It is a shrub up to 5 meters (17 feet) with extremely narrow leaves that are green, glabrous, and nonglaucous.

Field propagation. Coyote willow is easily propagated from dormant unrooted hardwood cuttings. The largest diameter cutting possible will give the best establishment results. Cuttings can be planted below the bank-full width to reduce the velocity of the runoff water, thereby reducing the sediment load. Its flexible stems will bend down with the high water velocities, ice or debris flows, but they will return quickly to the upright position when the water has receded, or the ice melts or the debris moves off. One of the best willows for bioengineering and streambank stabilization projects.

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Last Modified: 07/05/2007