Salix interior 'Filigree'
interior = inner
perhaps referring to its location away from the coast?
Sandbar Willow
I found selection with very fine, elegant foliage by a pathway in Tennessee while passing through two years ago. It is similar in habit to the native willow species with especially beautiful long slender, green leaves and is a very ornamental plant. It hasn't flowered yet, so I do not know the sex of this selection. Like the species it is risky to plant in an ornamental garden as it spreads widely/wildly by underground stems, but for erosion prevention of river/stream/lake banks it is really great. You can grow it in a garden by sticking the cuttings in the center of 10ft x 10ft, 6mil black plastic covered with a thin layer of mulch such as bark chips to hide the plastic. If you remove all the side shoots it makes a single trunk and can grow to 15ft, making a very handsome tree. It grows naturally in sandbars as its name suggests, but will grow in almost any soil with often aggravating effects—about as bad as Japanese Knotweed! It also has another virtue: if coppiced it produces wonderfully slender rods for basket making. I don't have this native wild on my property; but in the nursery, 6mil black polyethylene prevents them from spreading! This species is a close relative of Salix exigua, the Western Coyote Willow. Hardy to Zone 3.
USES: erosion control, phytoremediation—willows will absorb nasty chemicals and heavy metals provided by such Earth-killing folks as Dow, Monsanto, duPont, Exxon, Chevron, Shell, Koch Industries and the coal-mining industry etc.! Sandbar Willow is also superb for basketmaking.
'Filigree' in the nursery in July, lush green lacy foliage.
More shots in the nursery left in July, center in September.
Like many other willows in the nursery, 'Filigree' flowered for the first time in mid-May 2017. It's a male selection.
In late October the leaves turned golden yellow like many other Salix; another plus for this native willow selection.
WillowWorld
of Michael Dodge