ID: 006

To ID from the key:

1 Buds alternate

35 Spines absent

38 Buds lying flat against stem

39 One bud scale/scales absent

62 One bud scale, bud smooth

63 Buds yellow*

64 Young twigs reddish brown. Buds generally red but can be yellow

= GREY WILLOW

Name: Grey Willow?, Salix cinerea

Notes:

This is a very difficult specimen to ID! Initially going through the key I thought the buds were green and hairless which took me to Crack Willow. However, looking at the bud shape they did not appear quite how the illustration in Price and Bersweden (2013).

Thinking that the buds looked more yellow than green, the key takes us to Grey Willow. If we check the description:

Typically a shrub but can grow as a tree to 10m (this specimen is a tree)

Twigs: reddish brown (yes), downy particularly towards the end (yes, only really toward the end, see image at right)

Buds: Generally red, sometimes yellow-orange in the shade. These twigs were in the shade so perhaps yellow?

Shape of buds also looks fairly similar to the images. HOWEVER, White Willow (Salix alba), description states that 'new shoots are silky-hairy but eventually become hairless' and the buds are 'oval-shaped, tapering to a blunt point'. These descriptions are similar to the images.

One point to note: this tree was not growing by the waterside, but on a path a little down a hill from a community woodland.

A difficult tree to identify, and I have not made a confident identification, possibly this is a hybrid? This requires some further input from an expert!