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Salix lapponum; photograph Jan Sørensen, CC BY, via GBIF CC BYJan Sørensen, CC BY, via GBIF

Salix lapponum L.

Downy willow; Lapland willow

Salicaceae · Finland, Great Britain +19

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Salix lapponum, photograph Jan Sørensen, CC BY, via GBIFSalix lapponum, photograph Jan Alsvik, CC BY, via GBIFSalix lapponum, photograph Ian Dale, CC BY-SA, via GBIFSalix lapponum, photograph Tomas Evanger, CC BY-SA, via GBIFSalix lapponum, photograph siri Jensen, CC BY, via GBIFSalix lapponum, photograph art_leostrin, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-23.8°C
Record low -37.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
17°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
812mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
0–33DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to November, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Salix lapponum, the downy willow, is a low, much-branched shrub having a wide distribution in Northern Europe, eastwards to the Altai and western Siberia, and is found as far south as the Pyrenees and Bulgaria. In Scotland, UK, it can be found on rocky mountain slopes and cliffs, generally at altitudes of 200–900 m (660–2,950 ft). It grows to a height of 1.5 m (4.9 ft).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Salix lapponum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (572 mm of 813 mm) falls in May to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 6.8 °C against a yearly mean of 1.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to May.

Rain

813 mm in the median year at the habitat, 572 mm of it May to November. Wettest month July at 109 mm, driest month April at 41 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 664 mm to 1,903 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 812 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 813 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 0 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 0, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -23.8 °C, the absolute minimum -37.5 °C, 11,748 frost nights in 44 years, 267.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 16.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -12.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -15.1 °C to -6.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -23.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 72% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +151 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Salix lapponum through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 17 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -12.7 °C; 813 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost16.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-37.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 0–33RH 58–72%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1659 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-7 / -10–-1-7 / -9–-1-3 / -5–23 / -1–79 / 5–1314 / 11–1717 / 14–2015 / 12–1810 / 7–133 / 1–8-3 / -5–3-6 / -8–0
Night °C-13 / -15–-6-12 / -15–-6-9 / -11–-4-4 / -6–-11 / -2–47 / 4–910 / 7–139 / 6–114 / 2–7-1 / -4–3-7 / -10–-1-11 / -14–-5
Rain mm55 / 39–21942 / 32–16246 / 34–14941 / 34–10859 / 44–10885 / 69–121109 / 89–150100 / 86–15576 / 62–18576 / 61–21267 / 47–18757 / 40–201
DLI1 / 0–34 / 3–712 / 10–1624 / 22–2731 / 29–3533 / 30–3629 / 26–3321 / 18–2513 / 10–165 / 4–81 / 0–30 / 0–2
RH %71 / 66–7670 / 65–7466 / 63–7061 / 59–6658 / 56–6458 / 56–6460 / 59–6563 / 61–6766 / 63–6969 / 66–7272 / 67–7572 / 66–76
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1659 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1823 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 585:3753 (60.725, 7.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -37.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -23.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 16.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1659 distinct grid cells holding 1823 of the 1826 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 585:3753 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 60.50_7.500, lapse-corrected +151 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1383 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFinland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, West Siberia, Kazakhstan · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker68.819, 27.504 · in the densest population, 829 records (43% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1931 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1823 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1826 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1743 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 105 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1931 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Salix lapponum, photograph 1did not loadSalix lapponum, photograph 2did not loadSalix lapponum, photograph 3did not loadSalix lapponum, photograph 4did not loadSalix lapponum, photograph 5did not loadSalix lapponum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Jan Sørensen, CC BY, via GBIF; Jan Alsvik, CC BY, via GBIF; Ian Dale, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Tomas Evanger, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; siri Jensen, CC BY, via GBIF; art_leostrin, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Pedicularis sceptrum-carolinum Pedicularis sceptrum-carolinum Moor king lousewort Photo: CC0, author not statedVaccinium microcarpum Vaccinium microcarpum Small Cranberry Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerLuzula sudetica Luzula sudetica Juncaceae Photo: CC BY, Augustin SoulardAlchemilla murbeckiana Alchemilla murbeckiana Murbeck’s alchemilla Photo: CC BY, Gunnar EnganTofieldia pusilla Tofieldia pusilla Scottish asphodel Photo: CC BY, Øystein RøsokBetula nana Betula nana Dwarf birch Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Salix 159 in the reference

Salix acmophylla Salix acmophylla Common Middle East willow Photo: CC BY, Nachman bonesSalix acutifolia Salix acutifolia Siberian violet-willow Photo: CC0, author not statedSalix aegyptiaca Salix aegyptiaca Salicaceae Photo: Public domain, Daderot Salix aeruginosa Salicaceae Salix alatavica Salicaceae Salix alaxensis Salix alaxensis Felt-leaf willow Photo: CC BY, Ingvild RiskaSalix alba Salix alba White willow Photo: CC BY, Codrin BucurSalix alpina Salix alpina Salicaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSalix amygdaloides Salix amygdaloides Peach-leaf willow Photo: CC0, author not statedSalix apennina Salix apennina Large-leaved willow Photo: CC BY, Milan ChytrýSalix apoda Salix apoda Salicaceae Photo: CC BY, Dmitriy BochkovSalix appendiculata Salix appendiculata Salicaceae Photo: CC BY, Tom and T Herman all 160 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Diplima stuartiana; Salix alaternoides; Salix albiphila; Salix arenaria var. marrubiifolia; Salix buxifolia and 37 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Salix glauca Sm. is an older name of this species, not Salix glauca, a species of the reference; Salix gmelinii Turcz. is an older name of this species, not Salix gmelinii, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Salicaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Finland, Great Britain, Norway +18
Wild records
1931 in range · 1743 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 60.50_7.500, lapse-corrected +151 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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