Rock Willow

About Rock Willow in Alberta

Rock willow is a native Alberta mountain willow treated here as Salix vestita, a low alpine and subalpine species of rocky cold-site environments. In Alberta it belongs mainly to alpine turf, talus, exposed ridges, rocky slopes, and snowbed or seepage margins in mountain terrain, rather than to lowland riparian or urban landscapes. For Ancient Roots Alberta, its importance is ecological rather than size-based, centered on intact alpine shrub mats, persistence in fragile high-elevation habitats, and representation of specialized native mountain willow diversity.

Identification: Leaves are oblong to elliptic or broadly elliptic, with hairy to silky-woolly surfaces, especially beneath. The overall impression is gray-green, soft-textured, and somewhat felted. Unlike netleaf willow, the leaves are not strongly netted above.

Alberta range and habitat: Rock willow is native in Alberta and should be treated as a mountain species of alpine and subalpine terrain. It is not a lowland riverbank willow and not an ordinary planted landscape species.