Leaves linear (much longer than wide), margins very finely serrated, petioles (stalks connecting leaves to stems) glandular/sticky and ~0.6-1 cm long. Pinnately veined (veins branch off from the main axis of the leaf). Leaves ~6-13 cm long, ~0.2-1 cm wide, pointed both at the base and at the tip. Young leaves are covered with silky hairs but they lose this covering with age, leaving them glabrous or smooth-surfaced. They are silvery-olive green in youth and darker with age. Deciduous. This species is dioecious, with male and female flowers segregated on different plants. They flower as the leaves start coming out, from March to April in the form of male catkins (dangling spike-like single-sexed flower clusters) with yellow anthers (pollen-bearing structure on the stamens of a flower) and female catkins usually ~4- 8 cm long. The fruit is a cluster of capsules containing many tiny seeds in a matrix of fine silky hairs. The plant itself is a tree from 6-10 m tall, with rough dark brown bark, thin yellowish twigs. It favors locations by streams, springs, or seeps, generally below 600 m. It is more common inland, such as the Great Central Valley and its foothills, the Mojave and Colorado deserts, and the valleys and mountains of the Peninsular Ranges, but it does show up as a rarer element along the Southern California coast.
Salix gooddingii (Salicaceae): Goodding's willow, Goodding's black willow, Western black willow, or San Joaquin 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.