Satiny willow grows on lake shores, river banks and wetland margins across northern North America, from Labrador and Quebec to Manitoba and the northern United States. It is a wetland-associated species and is rare at the southern edge of its range, for example in Minnesota, New Hampshire and Vermont. In Quebec it is native.
The species was first described by Andersson and moved to its current combination by Bebb, and the epithet pellita points to the silky covering on the leaf undersides and capsules. Willows are among the earliest plants to flower in spring, and their branches root easily when broken, which is why they are widely used in bank stabilization.