Salix melanopsisNutt.

dusky willow

WFO wfo-0000930067 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Salix melanopsis, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. a Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / 2016-09-16 / obs. 112300595
Salix melanopsis, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. b Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112300579
Salix melanopsis, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. c Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112300586
Salix melanopsis, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. d Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112300592
Salix melanopsis, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. e Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112300600
Salix melanopsis, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. f Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112300603
Salix melanopsis, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. g Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112300584
Salix melanopsis, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. h Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112300589

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 10 botanical countries

Regions where Salix melanopsis is native: Alberta, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming AlbertaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoMontanaNevadaOregonWashingtonWyoming
Native distribution of Salix melanopsis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Montana MNT
Nevada NEV
Oregon ORE
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 17 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Oisodix fulva Raf.
  • Salix bolanderiana Rowlee
  • Salix exigua subsp. melanopsis (Nutt.) Cronquist
  • Salix exigua var. gracilipes (C.R.Ball) Cronquist
  • Salix exigua var. melanopsis (Nutt.) Cronquist
  • Salix exigua var. tenerrima (L.F.Hend.) C.K.Schneid.
  • Salix fluviatilis Nutt.
  • Salix fluviatilis var. tenerrima (L.F.Hend.) Howell
  • Salix longifolia var. tenerrima L.F.Hend.
  • Salix melanopsis var. bolanderiana (Rowlee) C.K.Schneid.
  • Salix melanopsis var. gracilipes C.R.Ball
  • Salix melanopsis var. kronkheitii Kelso
  • Salix melanopsis var. melanopsis
  • Salix melanopsis var. tenerrima (L.F.Hend.) C.R.Ball
  • Salix parksiana C.R.Ball
  • Salix sessilifolia var. vancouverensis Brayshaw
  • Salix tenerrima (L.F.Hend.) A.Heller

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.