Willow, Geyer - S. geyeriana

Shrub-type; A shrub up to 6 meters (20 feet) tall; stems are numerous, straight, and slender; new stems are green with a heavy white glaucous coating (heaviest coating on new growth from the basal cluster); leaves dark and hairy above with hair and white powder on the underside that will rub off with the thumb; commonly found between 1220 to 2440 meters (4000 to 8000 feet); absent from low elevation riparian zones and subalpine zones; concentrated in the upper part of the Wyoming big sage zone to the upper Douglas fir zone; typically found in the drier parts of the riparian zone (benches back from the stream) and side branches of the stream system; likes deep, fine-textured soils with a overstory of thinleaf alder, water birch, and lodgepole pine; often considered to grow as tall as the soil is deep; will grow on clayey soils better than Drummond willow; associated with Booth willow which will grow in the wetter areas of the riparian corridor while Geyer's grows in the drier areas; very close taxonomically to Lemmon willow and they may be synonymous.

Field propagation by dormant unrooted hardwood cuttings is highly successful.

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Last Modified: 07/05/2007