Alternate name: Sandbar Willow
Family: Salicaceae, Willow view all from this family
Description Shrub or small tree with many trunks and very narrow leaves covered with silky hairs; forming thickets.
Height: 7-23' (2-7 m).
Diameter: 10" (25 cm).
Leaves: 1 1/2-3 1/4" (4-8 cm), usually 1/8-1/4" (3-6 mm) wide. Very narrow or linear, tapering at both ends; usually without teeth; covered with gray, silky hairs on both surfaces; almost stalkless.
Bark: gray and furrowed.
Twigs: gray or silvery, covered with woolly hairs when young.
Flowers: catkins 3/4-1 1/2" (2-4 cm) long; covered with yellow, densely hairy scales; on leafy twigs; after leaves appear in spring.
Fruit: 1/4" (6 mm) long; densely hairy capsules, light brown; almost stalkless; maturing in late spring or early summer.
Habitat Moist soils of ditches, sandbars, and stream banks.
Range SW. Oregon to S. California and NW. Baja California; to 3000' (914 m).
Discussion Hinds Willow is named for Richard Brinsley Hinds (1812-47), a British botanist who collected plant specimens along the West Coast on a surveying expedition with the ship Sulphur in 1836-42. This willow holds soil banks but is considered a weed when it clogs irrigation ditches.
