Photo: Robert H. Mohlenbrock, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Prairie Willow

Scientific name: Salix humilis · Family: Salicaceae (willow family)

Also called upland willow, dwarf prairie willow.

A small willow for dry, sunny ground, whose silky catkins open before the leaves and feed bees at the very start of spring.

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Saplings ship bare-root or in a pot, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated here with the price, once available.

We grow it as saplings. One email when it is listed with prices, and nothing else. Or ask, and we reply with what is ready now. Live plants ship February to May and October to November.

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Drought tolerantHoney treeWildlife value

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 3–10 ft
USDA zones: 3–8
Growth rate: Fast
Flowers: March to May
Fruit: Capsules, May to June
First crop: 5 to 10 years
Mature spread: 12 ft
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Dry uplands, sandy barrens, rocky ground, old fields and edges
Native range: 37 states and the District of Columbia, north and west to North Dakota and south to Florida
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Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia
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Prairie willow is a small, many-stemmed willow that, unlike most of its genus, grows well on dry ground: prairies, oak savannas, sand plains and rocky bluffs. Its gray-green leaves are woolly white beneath, and those hairs may help it stand drought better than other willows. Its catkins are an important food for bees and other pollinators just out of winter. Mass it on a sunny, dry slope, a prairie edge or a sandy bank, where its early catkins can feed the first bees of spring.

Size, growth and what to expect

Prairie willow grows fast, nearly three feet a year in our growth estimator. It makes a rounded shrub of several stems, 3 to 10 feet tall, and branches that touch the ground take root, so a plant spreads into a small thicket. A dwarf variety rarely grows past 3 feet.

Catkins open from March into May, before the leaves, and it is among the first shrubs to bloom in spring. Bees and flies visit them for nectar. The woolly capsules split in May and June to release cottony seed. Caterpillars of the striped hairstreak and the green comma butterflies feed on the leaves, and birds and mammals find food on it early in the season.

It grows wild from Newfoundland and Labrador west to Manitoba and the Dakotas, and south to northern Florida and eastern Texas. Its home is prairies, oak savannas, sand plains, rocky bluffs, roadsides and the edges of woods, often on sandy or gravelly soil.

How to grow Prairie Willow

Prairie willow needs full sun. Unlike most willows it does well on dry, sandy or gravelly ground, and it also takes clay, moist soil, occasional flooding and road salt. Plant it 5 feet from a wall and set plants 5 feet apart. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Willow seed lives only a few days, so sow it the day the capsules split. Press it onto wet, bare soil in sun, uncovered, and keep the bed moist until the seedlings are up. Willows root freely from cuttings but are hard to raise from seed in quantity.

Water it every day for the first two weeks after planting, then every two to three days until week 12. After that, water weekly through the first two summers if rain is short. Rabbits and deer browse willow twigs and bark, so cage young plants where they are common. It sprouts again from the base if it is cut back.

Plants are male or female, and bees carry pollen from the male catkins to the female ones. As with other willows, seedlings take 5 to 10 years to bear seed. Leaf blight, cankers, borers, scale insects and aphids can attack it. It is short-lived, and wind can break its stems.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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