''Salix fargesii'' (川鄂柳), the Farges willow, is a species of flowering plant in the willow family (Salicaceae), which is

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Sichuan in China. It inhabits mountainous areas at . Growing to in height, it is a spreading deciduous

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

with prominent new green growth which turns a shiny brown in its second season. Bright red buds appear in winter, followed by erect

catkins A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in ''Salix''). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged cl ...

. The leaves are glossy green on the upper (abaxial) surface, and dull grey on the lower (adaxial) surface. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''fargesii'' commemorates

Paul Guillaume Farges Father Paul Guillaume Farges (1844–1912) was a French Catholic missionary, botanist and plant collector, based for much of his life (from 1867) in China, serving at Chongqing from 1892 until his death. He collected over 4,000 plant specimens, i ...

(1844–1912), a French missionary and botanist who sent many plant specimens back to Europe, where they were unknown at that time.

Varieties

*''Salix fargesii''

var. In botanical nomenclature, variety (abbreviated var.; in la, varietas) is a taxonomic rank below that of species and subspecies, but above that of form. As such, it gets a three-part infraspecific name. It is sometimes recommended that the ...

''fargesii'' *''Salix fargesii ''var''. kansuensis'' (K. S. Hao ex C. F. Fang & A. K. Skvortsov) G. Zhu

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1396603 fargesii Trees of China