Salix reticulata

Salix reticulata L.

Net-leaved willow

Status: scarce

S. reticulata is a plant of montane rock-ledges. It has stringent soil requirements, growing with few exceptions on limestone or calcareous schist. On large outcrops it is better able to survive rock-falls, droughts and grazing, as vegetative spread from surrounding plants can re-populate a denuded area. Small outcrops rarely harbour the plant. Associates include Dryas octopetala, Galium boreale, Persicaria vivipara, Polystichum lonchitis, Saxifrage nivalis and Silene acaulis. Only found in the higher hills of Scotland, its altitude range is 680 metres in Glen Doll to 1125 metres on Ben Lawers; it is rarely found at the lower end of its altitudinal range. 

S. reticulata is a creeping perennial dwarf shrub spreading by means of rhizomes and rooting stems. It usually flowers well but on Creag an Lochain Meikle (1977) found that nearly all the plants were male. Nevertheless regeneration appeared active. Regeneration is usually obvious elsewhere.

It is not clear whether this species is currently spreading or is in decline. Donald Patton studied Beinn Laoigh in 1920-1923 (Patton 1924), and was unable to find S. reticulata, even though Peter Ewing had found it years before. Since about 1960 it has become quite easy to find there (Roger 1975) suggesting that the plant may be subject to periods of advance and withdrawal (or that more people have been searching!).

The distribution of S. reticulata is typically arctic-alpine, being almost circumpolar but absent from Iceland and Greenland. Its European distribution is mapped by Jalas & Suominen (1976).

A. Slack