Salix pedicellata Desf.
Eng.: Mediterranean willow. Spa.: Sauce, sarga, bardaguera. Fre.: Saule à fruits pédicellés. Ara.: Hud el ma, ud el mêê, berquq el maïz. Tam.: Tafsent, tamlilt, smlel, techaa, tichki.
Deciduous small tree or shrub, dioecious, up to 10 m in height, irregular in shape, ± rounded. Trunk smooth, sinuous, sometimes robust, 0.5 m in diameter, with brown-grey bark, slightly fissured. Branches extended-erect. Branchlets upright or pendant, whitish-tomentose or glabrescent when young, then glabrous and greyish, sometimes very dark. Buds brown-pink, ± pubescent. Leaves 4-16 × 1-5 cm, alternate, deciduous, polymorphous, but usually ± ellipsoid to oblanceolate, with acute or obtuse apex, margin entire or finely crenate-dentate or serrulate, whitish-tomentose when born, then green and glabrous on the upper side and somewhat lighter and ± glabrescent on the underside. Petiole short, 0.4-0.8 cm, slightly hairy, sometimes glabrous. Stipules large, semi-cordiform to cordiform, dentate. Inflorescence in erect aments, alternate, pedunculate, precocious (they develop before the leaves), with rachis hairy or glabrescent; bracts brownish, generally lighter at the base. Male flowers with 1 nectary and 2 stamens with free glabrous filaments. Female flower with 1 nectary and pedicellate and glabrous ovary. Fruit an ovoid-conical capsule, with 2 acute valves, dehiscent, which contains numerous seeds covered by whitish hairs.
Flowering:
January to April.
Fruiting:
March to May.
Habitat:
Banks of rivers, streams, lakes and other wetlands. It tolerate drought better than other willows, so it is the most widely distributed in North Africa.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. In North Africa it occupies almost all areas that are conducive for its growth, from the Mediterranean to the Sahara, and from the Atlantic to the eastern coasts of Tunisia.
Observations:
Polymorphous species of which several subspecies, varieties and forms have been described, based on its leaf variability and also due to the frequent hybridisations with S. atrocinerea. For some authors, like Dobignard and Chatelain (ISFAN 2013) these variations, often influenced by local environmental factors, would become part of the normal variability of the species.
Conservation status:
Relatively common and widespread species, not considered threatened. It is listed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Least Concern (LC) (Rhazi et al. 2010).