Plants

Willow thickets

Characteristics of willow thickets

Communities dominated by species of the genus Salix.
The commonest species in the Montes de Toledo is Salix atrocinerea.
The densest, single-species willow thickets are formed by Salix salviifolia, a species endemic to the centre and west of the Iberian Peninsula.

The best examples of the formation occupy the areas closest to river channels, even settling on the gravels.
The Salix atrocinerea of Cabañeros lives both in riverside areas and in hygropeat environments, gullies and water-loving rush beds.
Salix salviifolia thickets: they appear in the middle and lower stretches of rivers, tolerate continentality and form dense stands joined to the river course.
Salix atrocinerea thickets: they climb to greater height and put up better with continentality. They are regarded as replacement stages of a relict climax community, the birch woods of Betula pendula subsp. fontqueri var. parvibracteata, and of other serial stages such as ash woods or alder woods. In Cabañeros they can be found on the rivers of the north slope with a more Euro-Siberian character, such as the Gévalo, the Sángrela, the Pura or the Torcón, and on some southern rivers such as the Estena, the Milagro or the Bullaque.

Deciduous, simple, alternate, oblong-lanceolate leaves, 2–10 cm long by 1–2 cm wide, with a margin that is smooth or finely serrated. They are matt on the upper side and hairy on the underside

The Salix atrocinerea thickets:

Vicente García Canseco (Coor.) (1997). Parque Nacional de Cabañeros. Madrid, Spain: Ecohábitat.
Perea García-Calvo, R., Perea Ruiz-Tapiador, D., Giménez Velasco, G.F. (2015). Vegetación y flora del Parque Nacional de Cabañeros. Volumen I. El paisaje vegetal: ecología, conservación y rutas de interés geobotánico. Madrid, Spain: Editorial Solitario