''Baccharis salicina'' is a species of plant in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

. Common names include willow baccharis, and Great Plains false willow. It is a shrub found in North America where it grows in mildly saline areas.

Description

''Baccharis salicina'' is a shrub producing erect, branching stems approaching 4 metres (13 ft) in maximum height. The thick leaves are oblong to oval in shape and sometimes have roughly toothed edges. They may be up to 7 centimetres (2.8 in) long. The shrub is dioecious, with male and female plants producing flower heads of different types. The head is enclosed in a layer of phyllaries and the female flowers yield fruits, each an achene with a white pappus about a centimeter long. The earliest name for the species is ''Baccharis salicifolia'' Nutt., coined in 1840. This name, however, had previously been used for some

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

n material, so the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n plants needed to be renamed as ''Baccharis salicina.''

Distribution and habitat

The plant is native to the United States (southern

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

region and

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; states of

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New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

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, and

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and northern Mexico (

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).Flora of North America, Willow-baccharis, Great Plains false willow, Baccharis salicina Torrey & A. Gray
/ref> The plant grows on open

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s, most commonly in mildly saline areas.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4838647 salicina Flora of North America Plants described in 1840