Arctic Willow
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| iArctic Willow | ||||||||||||||
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 Arctic Willow foliage and male catkins
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| Salix arctica Pall. |
The Arctic Willow (Salix arctica) is a tiny creeping willow (family Salicaceae). It is adapted to survive in harsh arctic and sub-arctic environments, and has a circumpolar distribution round the Arctic Ocean. It grows in tundra and rocky moorland, and is the northernmost woody plant in the world, occurring north to the northern limit of land on the north coast of Greenland.
It is typically a low shrub growing to only 1-15 cm in height (rarely to 25 cm high) and has round, shiny green leaves 1-3 cm long and broad, rarely up to 8 cm long and 6 cm broad; they are pubescent, with long silky, silvery hairs. Like the rest of the willows, Artic Willow is dioecious, with male and female catkins on separate plants. As a result the plant's appearance varies; the female catkins are red-coloured, while the male catkins are yellow-coloured.
Despite its small size, it is a long-lived plant, growing extremely slowly in the severe arctic climate; one in eastern Greenland was found to be 236 years old.
