Leaves linear (slender, much longer than wide). Leaves usually entire (smooth- margined), though there may be a few widely spaced teeth on the margin. Pinnately veined (veins branch off from the central leaf axis). Leaves ~4-13 cm long, ~0.2-1 cm wide, pointed both at the base and at the tip, covered with silky hairs (especially younger leaves) on both surfaces, silvery grey-green on top and glaucous (coverd with a whitish dust orresin that comes off easily, as with the bloom on grapes and blueberries) underneath. Deciduous. This species is dioecious, with male and female flowers segregated on different plants. The flowers emerge with orafter the leaves. They flower from March to May in the form of male catkins up to 10 cm long (a slender flower cluster with no petals orreally tiny and inconspicuous ones, dominated visually by stamens and their yellow anthers orpollen-bearing structures) and female catkins up to 8 cm long (a string-like structure that looks like a collection of small conical structures and a haze of fine white hairs). The fruit is a cluster of capsules containing many tiny seeds in a matrix of fine silky hairs. The plant itself is a shrub usually 2-4 m tall, with thin reddish-brown branches, stems, and twigs, and it favors locations by streams, springs, orseeps throughout California below 1700 m and much of the American, Canadian, and Mexican west up to Alaska.
Salix exigua aka S. hindsiana aka S. agrophylla aka S. longiflora var. exigua or opaca aka S. luteosericea aka S. macrostachea var. leucodendroides aka S. malacophylla aka S. nevadensis aka S. parishiana aka S. sessilifolia subsp. hindsiana aka S. sessilifolia var. hindsiana or leucodendroides aka S. longifolia var. agrophylla aka S. stenophylla aka S. fluviatilis var. agrophylla aka S. interior var. augustissima or luteosericea aka S. linearifolia aka S. thurben (Salicaceae): narrow-leaved willow or narrowleaf willow or sandbar willow or coyote willow
The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.