Salicaceae - Willow family

Dioecious trees or shrubs. Stipules present, usually deciduous. Leaves alternate, simple. Flowers in unisexual catkins, individual flowers subtended by a bract. Perianth 0. Male flowers: stamens 2-many. Female flowers: ovary superior, 1-locular; styles 1 or 2, stigmas 2, often 2-fid. Fruit a capsule, dehiscing longitudinally into 2-4 valves. Seeds with a tuft of long silky hairs.

Worldwide: 2 genera and 435 species, cosmopolitan.