Salix tetrasperma-Attupala, Puzhappanji, Vanchi, Vanchimaram -plant

Description

Deciduous dioecious trees, to 25 m high, bark 10-12 thick, pale brown, rough, vertically fissured; blaze red; young branches silky pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules lateral, ovate, cauducous; petiole 10-25 mm, slender, glabrous, grooved above; lamina 6-15 x 2-5 cm, ovate, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate; base acute or rounded; apex acuminate; margin serrate, glabrous and shining above, glaucous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 10-18 pairs, pinnate, close, prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers unisexual, in axillary catkins, to 6 cm long, minutely silky villous; male yellowish; female greenish; bracts ovate, 2 x 2 mm, densely woolly; perianth absent; stamens 5-12, unequal, free, with 2 glands at the base; anthers basifixed; disc yellow, ovary stalked, superior, 1-celled, ovoid, 4-6 ovuled; stigma 2, branched again. Fruit a capsule, 4 mm, 2-4 valved; seeds 1-4, oblong, with long deciduous hairs.