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Salix cinerea × S. myrsinifolia (S.
× puberula Döll = S. × strepida
Schleich. ex J. Forbes), a willow hybrid

Account Summary

Probably introduced, very rare, but probably also over-looked.

22 September 1990; Riley, Dr D.H.; Edenmore, 1 km NW of Tempo village.

Fermanagh occurrence

This rare hybrid willow has been found only once in the VC – in a roadside hedge near a stream just outside Tempo village which drains Derrin Lough. The specimen's identity has been confirmed by R.D. Meikle. The erect shrub was found by Dave Riley, BSBI VC Recorder for Co Londonderry (H40), who has spent more time studying willow hybrids than most other local recorders. He also found a single station for this hybrid in adjacent Co Tyrone in 1990, at Maghera Lough, near Castlederg (Harron 1992). S. × puberula was previously recorded along with both its parent species by an upland stream in Co Antrim (H39) by A.W. Stelfox in 1931 and, more recently (1984-9), by John Harron (the other current NI willow expert), in Cos Antrim and Londonderry (H39 and H40). Consequently the FNEI 3 lists a total of eight stations for this particular shrub hybrid, all but one in Co Antrim.

British and Irish occurrence of S. myrsinifolia: In B & I, S. myrsinifolia Salisb. (Dark-leaved Willow), a Boreal-montane species, is most frequently recorded in northern regions and is very rare and scattered in Britain south of a line between Fleetwood and Scarborough. The hybrid is completely absent south of this same line. The mapped records of S. myrsinifolia and this hybrid, produced most recently by Stace et al. (2015), suggest that S. × puberula is at least occasional within the range of S. myrsinifolia. The species itself almost always occurs in very small numbers (or as solitary bushes), growing in open, unshaded banks, usually rooted in damp but free-draining, peat-rich, stony or gravelly soils on river banks and lakeshores (R.D. Meikle, in: Stewart et al. 1994). Generally, but not always, S. myrsinifolia grows sufficiently near lowland streams that its roots are unlikely to dry out. While rare and rather widely scattered, it is regarded as native in the N & NE of Ireland. Elsewhere in Ireland, S. myrsinifolia is even more rare and it is assumed to be either naturalised or perhaps deliberately planted, eg when in or near hedgerows, as it appears in Fermanagh. S. myrsinifolia readily hybridizes with accompanying but definitely indigenous sallows, S. cinerea subsp. oleifolia (Common Sallow), S. aurita (Eared Willow) and S. caprea (Goat Willow). Rather often only these hybrid bushes can be found.

Harron (1992) reckoned that S. myrsinifolia is being hybridised out of existence in Co Antrim (H39) at least. It has already died out along several glen-side streams where it previously grew and, based on morphological characteristics, in 1990 only the last remnant genetic traces of S. myrsinifolia remained in some of these particular sites. The most thriving surviving station in NI for S. myrsinifolia and its hybrids appears to be in Co Londonderry (H40), along the banks of the River Roe between Dungiven and Corrick Bridge above Carn and further up along some feeder streams (Harron 1992).