Salix exigua (Sandbar Willow) is a deciduous shrub reaching 13 to 23 feet in height. The leaves are narrow, green, to grayish with silky white hairs when young. The flowers emerge as yellow or white catkins in late spring, after the leaves appear. The fruit is a cluster of capsules, each containing numerous minute seeds embedded in shiny white silk.
Like most willows, Sandbar Willow it is moisture-loving. It will tolerate a variety of soils and poor drainage. It grows in full sun and spreads by shoots to form dense colonies so it will eventually spread to occupy any wet soil that it can reach. Use with other wetland trees, shrubs and grasses.
It is host to a wide variety of pollinators, including butterflies, moths, and some gall-forming wasps. Some birds, such as the Least Bell’s Vireo and Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, prefer to nest in large, dense willow thickets.