sericea

This native species is found only in the Eastern half of North America where it forms a large shrub 10–12ft tall. The branchlets start bright green and become purplish with age. The young stems are downy at first before turning smooth. Leaves are reddish for a short period and then turn bright green; both sides of the leaf are covered in silver, downy hairs at first, then the upper surface loses it’s hairs and the undersides remain silky and glaucous. Has stipules at first but they soon drop off. Flowers are produced before the leaves and early in the year. The bud-scales rounded, blackish and hairy. Catkins are 0.5–2in long and less than 0.5in wide. We may have this species on our property but we haven’t been able to verify that yet. As we have seven native species in close proximity on the property we may have hybrids, which really complicates their identification. One distinguishing feature of this species is that young branches snap off very easily!