Article

Genus Salix has not been yet a sufficiently studied taxon in Portugal. The authors aim to clairify some taxonomical issues and add some new information about this genus. Preliminarily, a bibliographical survey conceming the geographical scope of Portugal and Spain only, was made in order to prepare tentative key for the genus. Furthermore, taxonomical assessment was based in samples collected along the Portuguese Mediterranean Region. Fieldwork included recording of morphological and ecological characters that could be only observed in situo For these, voucher specimens were also taken and kept in LISI, for further record of morphometric features. Specimens trom Bragança (BRESA), Vila Real (HVR), Porto (PO) and Lisbon (LISI) herbaria were al so studied. Characters selected for description are mostly those used by Crovello (1969), Palo ma BIanco (1986), Vasconcellos (1970), Franco (1971), Diaz Gonzalez & Llamas (1987), Thiébaut (2000), but al so others based in criteri a of constancy and believed to yield some taxonomical significance, namely those possessing higher correlations with the former. Thus, a preliminary study of both living and dried material supports the total list of characters. Based solely in morphometric features, a preliminary phenetic classification was approached using a clustering procedure - UPGMA and Bray-Curtis coefficient - by means of the NTSYS-PC ™ program.