Drummond's Willow

About Drummond's Willow in Alberta

Drummond's willow is a native Alberta mountain willow of wet streambanks, wet meadows, fens, flood-influenced shrublands, and other moist foothill to subalpine settings. It is usually a substantial deciduous shrub rather than a low alpine mat or an urban ornamental planting, and it often forms dense thickets in mountain riparian and wetland landscapes. For Ancient Roots Alberta, it matters as one of the more important native willows of healthy foothill and mountain wet systems, especially where mature shrub structure, wildlife use, and intact streamside ecology still persist.

Identification: Leaves are generally elliptic to narrowly elliptic and help give the species a broad mountain-shrub willow look rather than an ultra-linear riparian look. Mature leaves are useful, but confidence improves when they are interpreted together with catkins, branchlets, and wet mountain habitat.

Alberta range and habitat: Drummond's willow is native in Alberta and is best understood as a mountain, foothill, and upper-riparian species rather than a prairie or urban willow. It occurs on river and creek margins, in openings in spruce woods, in wet thickets on subalpine slopes, and in other moist montane to subalpine environments.