Faurea saligna leaves

The leaves of the willow beechwood are long, narrow and lanceolate to elliptic. They droop and are sometimes sickle-shaped or just slightly curved. The margins are entire and wavy. The leaf base and tip both taper. The leaf colour is pinkish when newly grown, shiny, fresh green or pale green in maturity and red in autumn. Petioles (leaf stalks) are pink or red.

The flowers grow in slender, pendulous spikes at branch tips, an inflorescence structure in which individual flowers have no stalks. The flowers are fragrant, honey-scented and creamy white or greenish, initially covered in grey hairs.

The fruit of Faurea saligna is a small nutlet covered in hairs and with the old flower style persisting. The blooms appear in early spring (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002).