Salicaceae

Salicaceae, the salicaceae, is a family of plants belonging to the order Malpighiales. It is made up of deciduous and dioecious trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, stipulated. Inconspicuous, unisexual, achlamyd flowers, accompanied by bracts and gathered in pendulous or erect catkins. Mainly anemophilous and secondarily entomophilous (Salix); perianth cup-shaped or null, androecium with 2-10 stamens; syncarpic bicarpelar gynoecium with open carpels; numerous ovules; flowers accompanied by bracts. Fruits in a loculicidal capsule, which opens with 2-4 valves; with numerous, small seeds, fringed with hairs (anemochorous dissemination), with short germination power. Important vegetative reproduction.

They include about 300 species from temperate and cold climates, mainly from the northern hemisphere. They form poplars and riverside willows.

Genres