Salix sphenophylla

Plants 0.03-0.12 m, not clonal or forming clones by layering. Stems trailing and rooting; branches yellow-brown or brownish, glabrous; branchlets yellow-brown, glabrous. Leaves: stipules absent or rudimentary; petiole 4-25 mm, (glabrous or pilose adaxially); largest medial blade hypostomatous, narrowly elliptic, broadly elliptic, obovate, or very broadly obovate, 19-52 × 10-28 mm, 1-3 times as long as wide, base cuneate or convex, margins flat or slightly revolute, entire, apex convex, retuse, or rounded, abaxial surface glabrous, pilose or sparsely long-silky to glabrescent, hairs straight or wavy, adaxial slightly glossy, glabrous or pilose; proximal blade margins entire; juvenile blade (reddish), very sparsely long-silky abaxially. Catkins: staminate 21-53 × 7-13 mm, flowering branchlet 8-20 mm; pistillate loosely to densely flowered, slender or stout, 32-79 × 7-18 mm, flowering branchlet 4-27 mm; floral bract brown or black, 1.1-2 mm, apex rounded, entire, abaxially hairy or ciliate, hairs straight. Staminate flowers: abaxial nectary absent, adaxial nectary oblong, 0.6-1 mm; filaments distinct; anthers ellipsoid or shortly cylindrical, 0.4-0.6 mm. Pistillate flowers: adaxial nectary oblong or ovate, 0.7-1.6 mm, equal to or longer than stipe; stipe 0.5-1.4 mm; ovary obclavate or pyriform, glabrous, or patchy or streaky pilose or villous, especially on beak, beak gradually tapering to or slightly bulged below styles; ovules 10-18 per ovary; styles 0.6-1.8 mm; stigmas flat, abaxially non-papillate with pointed tip, or slenderly cylindrical, 0.32-0.5-0.68 mm. Capsules 4-12 mm. 2n = 38, 57.

Flowering mid Jun-late Jul (early Aug). Stony or gravelly substrates on talus, rocky outcrops, dry, stony tundra, sandy and moss tundra; 10-900 m; N.W.T., Yukon; Alaska; e Asia (Chukotka, Russian Far East, e Siberia).

The patchy or streaky indumentum on the ovaries of some plants suggests that they may be hybrids.