Salix triandra L.

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var. hoffmanniana (Sm.) Bab.

A shrubby tree to about 12 ft high with interlacing branches, forming a dense crown. Leaves narrow-ovate, rounded at the base, green beneath, 1{1/2} to 2{1/2} in. long. Stipules more persistent than is usual in S. triandra. Male catkins rather dense. This minor variant was discovered by William Borrer in Sussex; Sir James Smith, who described it in 1828, identified it with the willow figured as S. triandra in Hoffmann’s Salices (1785), whence the specific epithet. The var. hoffmanniana is found in various parts of Britain, though not commonly. Nearly all the plants are male and may belong to a single clone, though there is no obvious reason why this willow should have been planted, as it is unsuitable for any practical purpose.S. triandra varies in the size and relative width of its leaves, and in the colouring of their undersurface. Plants with the leaves green beneath are considered to represent the typical state of the species; those that have them glaucous beneath are sometimes distinguished as var. discolor Anderss. (or even as a subspecies). S. medwedewii Dode, shrubby, with very narrow leaves, intensely glaucous beneath, is included in S. triandra by A. K. Skvortsov in Fl. Iranica. It was described in 1908 from plants introduced to France from the Caucasus and could be regarded as a cultivar of S. triandra – cv. ‘Medwedewii’.S. nipponica Franch. & Sav. ? S. subfragilis Anderss.; S. triandra var. nipponica (Franch. & Sav.) Seem.; S. t. subsp. nipponica (Franch. & Sav.) A. K. Skvortsov – This species, perhaps no more than a race of S. triandra, is a native of Japan and continental N.E. Asia, reaching almost as far west as the eastern limit of S. triandra. The differential characters given by von Seemen are: leaves more downy when young; leaves under the catkins almost entire; catkins denser-flowered. Skvortsov distinguishes it (as a subspecies) only by its branchlets being covered when mature with a pruinose bloom.