Red Willow
Salix bonplandiana
Family: Salicaceae
OTHER NAMES
Spanish: sauce, sauz
O’odham: ce'ul
Yoeme: wata
CHARACTERISTICS
Semi-deciduous tree, this willow is actually evergreen if the cold doesn’t knock off the foliage. A lance-leafed willowy tree usually reaching up to 40’ tall but can get up to 60’. Catkin flowers March-June. Plants are monoecious, there are both female and male flowers present on each plant. Fruits are capsules that release cottony seeds. The foliage is dark green above and pale beneath.
In Mexico, there is a columnar-growing selection of this species, often planted on agricultural land as a wind-block and used in formal settings.
LANDSCAPE USE
Medium-sized shade tree with locations with ample water.
Photo by Pedro Nájera Quezada, iNaturalist
Salix bonplandiana on SEINET
GROWING CONDITIONS
AN EXPLANAITION OF TERMS USED
SUN full sun to shade
WATER ample water, this is a riparian species
SOIL can tolerate constantly wet soils
HARDINESS untested, but in the Tucson region, plants may go momentarily dormant with freezing temperatures. Probably hardy to at least 20°F.
BASIN bottom zone
CONTAINER not recommended
NUTRITION low
MAINTENANCE very little
ECOLOGY
Larval host to the mourning cloak butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa) western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus), Arizona red-spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis ssp. arizonensis), Weidemeyer's admiral (Limenitis weidemeyerii) and a vast array of other insects, attracting substrate-insectivorous birds. Nesting tree for riparian birds. Important to native bees and other nectar insects for nectar-rich flowers.
ETHNOBOTANY
Bark used for fevers, infusion of the roots taken for diarrhea, used in basketry, for fuel and building materials, for cradles, posts, sweathouses, arrows and bows, mats, whistles, and as a protective charm.
NATURAL DISTRIBUTION
In Mexico, the Bonpland willow is associated with the Pacific Coast, and in southern Mexico, the range extends into internal mountain areas of Pacific, central-southwest Guatemala. Across southern Mexico, it is a species of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, and has its range extension on the Pacific, west from the west of the Volcanic Belt, and then north into the Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera. In the cordillera, the range ends in southwest Chihuahua, but is disjunct in a large area of central Arizona, the Mogollon Rim–White Mountains (Arizona) and extending into the Madrean Sky Islands southeastwards, including mountain-related isolated locales in the bootheel of extreme southwest New Mexico.
TAXONOMY AND NAME
This species is in the Salicaceae, the willow family. Salix has 626 species distributed worldwide.
Salix is the Latin name for willow, meaning -to leap or spring-, while bonplandiana is named for Aime Bonpland (1773-1858) a French botanist.
Red willow usually has reddish stems and two-toned foliage (lighter colored underneath). Photo by Sue Carnahan, SEINET
Staminate (male) catkins, photo by Heriberto Ávila-González, iNaturalist
Green immature fruit, and ripe fruit releasing seed and floof. Photo by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, iNaturalist
An upright, narrow growing selection in Mexico. Photo by César Hernández Hernández, iNaturalist