Kaspiy toli
Salix caspica is a plant from the willow genus (Salix) within the willow family (Salicaceae). The natural range extends from eastern European Russia to far western China. Salix caspica is a large shrub with a height of up to 5 meters. The bark is gray. The bark of the relatively thin branches is yellowish and shiny. The buds are about 5 millimeters long and pointed.
The alternate leaves arranged on the branches are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The petiole is 3 to 5 millimeters long and glabrous. With a length of 5 to 8 centimeters and a width of 4 to 5 centimeters, the simple leaf blade is linear-lanceolate or linear with a wedge-shaped base, long, pointed and entire. Both sides of the leaf are the same color, initially slightly tomentose and later glabrous. The caducous stipules are linear.
The number of chromosomes is 2n=38.
The inflorescences are long, cylindrical, almost subsessile, terete, densely flowered catkins with deciduous, scale-like leaflets at the base. The inflorescence rachis is tomentose-hairy. The bracts are brownish, pilose-hairy with a blunt tip. Male flowers have two stamens, with their filaments fused to each other and downy-haired at the base, and with yellow anthers. Female flowers have a ovoid-conical, densely tomentose, subsessile ovary. The style is very short, the stigma is capitulate. The fruit is a brownish, pubescent capsule.
It grows in open forests along rivers in China, elsewhere it grows along rivers in deserts and steppes in loose sandy soil or sand dunes with a high water table, and in mountain valleys up to 2,000 metres in altitude. It is also typically found in blow outs. It requires much light to grow.
Salix caspica blooms before the leaves appear, in Xinjiang from April to May. The fruits ripen in Xinjiang in June. In Russia it also flowers in May and fruits in June.
Salix caspica Pall. To The Tashkent Botanical Garden seeds of the species were brought in and planted in nurseries in 2014 for the purpose of introduction. Sprouts planted from seeds were unub-grown in 2014, and young sprouts were transplanted to the Central Asian exposition in 2016. Currently, the exposition is growing 2 adult trees of this species.
