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Family Salicaceae — Part 2

Genus SALIX

CHIEFLY quick-growing, water-loving trees and shrubs, with slender, supple twigs, and buds with a single protective cap or scale of two coats. Wood light, soft. Leaves simple, alternate, narrow and pointed, deciduous. Flowers dioecious, in loose catkins, each flower subtended by a bract having an entire hairy margin. Fruit a 2-valved pod with papery walls; seeds minute, in copious hairy floats.