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Polar willow

Salix polaris

Polar willow
Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0

Salix polaris is one of the smallest willows in the world, a prostrate, creeping dwarf shrub only 2 to 9 cm high that spreads by underground runners across tundra and mountain ground. It is grown mainly in alpine or rock-garden settings, and it needs cold, open, well-drained conditions rather than warmth or rich feeding.

Family
Salicaceae (Willow family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist during the growing season and avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Gritty, well-drained mineral soil or gravel mixed with humus.
Temperature
Hardy to very cold conditions, tolerating sub-zero winters; avoid prolonged heat above about 25 °C.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Subarctic to W. Canada.
Climate
subalpine or subarctic

About

Salix polaris, the polar willow, is a species of willow with a circumpolar distribution in the high arctic tundra, extending north to the limits of land, and south of the Arctic in the mountains of Norway, the northern Ural Mountains, the northern Altay Mountains, Kamchatka, and British Columbia, Canada.

Other Salix plants

Salix abscondita · Common Middle East Willow · Siberian Violet Willow · Salix aegyptiaca · Salix aeruginosa · Salix alatavica · Feltleaf willow · White willow · Salix alexii-skvortzovii · Salix alpina · Peachleaf willow · Salix annulifera

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Salix polaris by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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