GOLDEN OSIER (Salix alba, Linn., variety vitellina). 40 to 60 feet. Venerable-looking, stout-trunked tree with wide, rounded head of vigorous branches, the slim terminal twigs orange or golden. Bark rough, gray, sometimes shaggy. Wood soft, light, weak, brown, used for fuel. Leaves ellip tical, serrate, 2 to 4 inches long, silky, hairy, becoming smooth at maturity, lining pale or white, hairy; petioles short.
Flowers in catkins of the willow type, described above. Fruit a bottle-shaped capsule, in hanging cluster, in May; seeds minute, with float of down. Dist.: Eastern North America. A naturalized variety derived from the white willow of Europe.