Rose Gold Pussy Willow

Grown to protect embankments and as an ornamental plant; used for weaving wicker baskets.

Shrubs. Branchlets yellowish brown or russet; at first tomentose, glabrescent. Buds yellowish brown, oblong-ovoid, downy, apex acute. Stipules semiovate, large; petiole present; leaf blade elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, rarely oblong, 5 (-12) × 1.5-2(-3.5) cm, abaxially gray, silky downy (young leaves in spring and early summer glabrous or subglabrous, densely sericeous in summer and early autumn), adaxially dull green, glabrous, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex acute; veins raised abaxially. Flowering precocious. Catkins sessile, 2.5-3.5 × 1-1.5 cm; bracts black distally, elliptic-lanceolate, long pubescent, apex acute. Male flower: adaxial gland russet, slender; stamens 2; filaments connate throughout, ca. 6 mm, glabrous; anthers red or russet. Fruiting catkin to 8 cm. Female flower: ovary ellipsoid, tomentose, sessile; style slender; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule densely pilose. Fl. Apr, fr. May. 2n = 38.

Along streams. E Heilongjiang [Japan, Korea, Russia]

Salix gracilistyla var. acuminata Skvortzov; S. gracilistyla var. latifolia Skvortzov.

Salix gracilistyla is a species of willow native to Japan, Korea and China known in English as the rose-gold pussy willow.

It is a deciduous shrub that reaches a height of 1–6 m.