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Salix Lutea

The Salix Lutea is commonly known as Yellow Willow,

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Growing Regions

Yellow willow is found at low to mid-elevations from Alberta to Manitoba, south to western Kansas and New Mexico, west to Arizona and California, and north along the Sierra Nevada Mountains to eastern Washington. It is lacking in the Great Basin [14,17,37].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of yellow willow is Salix lutea Nutt. There are no infrataxa [22,24,26].

Yellow willow typically occurs as a pioneer or early seral species along
the banks of rivers or streams.  In these riparian comminities, it is
often found with cottonwoods (Populus spp.) and other willows (Salix
spp.).  

Published classification schemes listing yellow willow as an indicator
species or as a dominant part of the vegetation in community types or
dominance types are presented below.

Riparian dominace types of Monatana [19]
Plant associations of Region Two: Potential plant communities of
  Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas [25]
Riparian community type classification of eastern Idaho - western
  Wyoming [46]
Riparian community type classification of norethern Utah and adjacent
  Idaho [47]

Associates:  In Idaho, yellow willow is generally confined to Wyoming
big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata var. wyomingensis) and grass
vegetation zones, seldom extending into the forest, and avoiding cooler
mountain big sagebrush (A. tridentata var. vaseyana) zones [7].
Associated plants of Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming often include: 1)
overstory trees such as eastern cottonwood (P. deltoides), black
cottonwood (P. trichocarpa), water birch (Betula occidentalis), and
green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), 2) shrubs such as sandbar willow (S.
exigua), Pacific willow (S. lasiandra), Booth willow (S.  boothii),
Drummond willow (S. drummondiana), Wood's rose (Rosa woodsii), red-osier
dogwood (Cornus sericea), and inland currant (Ribes oxyacanthoides ssp.
setosum), 3) very wet site understory herbs such as beaked sedge (Carex
rostrata) and field horsetail (Equisetum arvense), and 4) moist site
understory herbs such as alpine aster (Aster foliaceus), Richardson
geranium (Geranium richardsonii), and Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis)
[7,19,46,47].

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Uchytil, Ronald J. 1989. Salix lutea. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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