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Salix cinerea subsp. oleifolia
Macreight, Common Sallow, Rusty Sallow or Sally

Account Summary

Native, common, widespread and locally abundant. Suboceanic temperate.

1882; Stewart, S.A.; Co Fermanagh (as S. cinerea L.).

Throughout the year.

Growth form, preferred habitats

Familiarly and locally very well known as 'Sally' or 'Sallies' in Fermanagh, S. cinerea subsp. oleifolia almost always appears as a multi-branched shrub, rather than as a tree with a solitary basal trunk. The tree form is more likely found in better illuminated parts in the shrub layer of relatively undisturbed woodland, which, on account of prevailing local grazing practices, is an uncommon habitat in Fermanagh. Until one is practiced at willow identification and familiar with this plant, the leaves of subsp. oleifolia are so extremely variable that fully mature summer ones are recommended for its proper, secure identification: the spring and early summer leaves often appear quite different from the mature leaf, not only in shape and size, but also in the details of the leaf margin. This great variability is reflected in the complicated history, numerous names and frequent changes of status which this taxon has undergone, all clearly described in Meikle's excellent 1984, BSBI Handbook of Willows and Poplars.

Subspecies oleifolia is an extremely variable plant, but generally it, − and unfortunately from the identification point of view, the range of hybrids it forms with other willows − is readily recognised by the presence on the underleaf of sparse rusty-brown hairs on the veins. However, white hairs may also be present. The very much rarer subsp. cinerea, which is either very rare or maybe entirely absent in Ireland (see above account), is distinguished by the lack of these brown hairs and by the possession of twigs covered with very short, velvet-like, grey hairs, which remain densely pubescent for over a year (ie they are very persistently pubescent) (Meikle 1984).

S. cinerea subsp. oleifolia shrubs occupy a large number of habitats, tolerating damp to occasionally flooded, but not permanently waterlogged, lightly shaded or open sites on moderately acid to base-rich or calcareous soils, but in the latter case, the soils are always moisture-retentive. Habitats range from relatively undisturbed semi-natural, swampy to marshy fen-carr, to drier scrub and wood margins and meadows on moderately acid soils, to more disturbed, bare, wet mineral soils, together with artificial, open wayside and waste ground situations, eg hedgerows and old quarries.

Reproduction

In more open, moderately disturbed situations such as waste ground and quarries where bare soil surfaces become available, high seed production and efficient plumed wind-dispersal enable this subspecies to rapidly invade as a pioneer colonist. Once established, the remarkable vegetative reproductive ability characteristic of all willows enables it to spread and form dense thickets by layering and by the re-rooting of any detached parts.

Fermanagh occurrence

This essentially Atlantic subspecies of S. cinerea is by quite a long margin the most common, widespread, locally abundant and sometimes dominant type of shrub willow in Fermanagh. It occurs almost everywhere in the VC except on very strongly acidic, truly aquatic or excessively dry, heavily disturbed or very exposed ground. It is the fourth most widespread woody plant in Fermanagh behind Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and Alder (Alnus glutinosa). Subsp. oleifolia is represented in 478 Fermanagh tetrads, almost 90.5% of those in the VC and so it could almost be described as 'tetrad ubiquitous'!

British and Irish occurrence

At the hectad level of discrimination plotted in the New Atlas, the Fermanagh ubiquity is mirrored just about everywhere in B & I except Norfolk and adjacent East Anglian VCs, where subsp. oleifolia is more or less replaced by subsp. cinerea (Willows and Poplars Handbook; New Atlas).

Hybridization

In wet or periodically waterlogged conditions around Fermanagh lakeshores, subsp. oleifolia very often grows alongside the two other common and most ecologically undemanding sallows, S. aurita (Eared Willow) and S. caprea (Goat Willow) and they may regularly form hybrids. We are aware that we and other local recorders tend to habitually overlook these shrubby willow hybrids and we acknowledge that they are under-recorded here, as they also are elsewhere in B & I.

Threats

None.