Black Willow

Order: Malpighiales

Family: Salicaceae

Genus: Salix

Species: S. nigra

Identifying Characteristics:

- Height: medium-sized deciduous tree, the largest North American species of willow, growing to 10-30 m tall, exceptionally up to 45 m, with a trunk 50–80 cm diameter

- Bark: is dark brown to blackish, becoming fissured in older trees frequently forking near the base

- Shoots: shoots are slender, variable in color from green to brown, yellow or purplish

- Buds: are small, 2–4 mm long, with a single pointed reddish-brown bud scale

- Leaves: are alternate, long, thin, 5-15 cm long and 0.5-2 cm broad, usually somewhatfalcate, dark, shiny green on both sides or with a lighter green underside, with a finely serrated margin, a short petioleand a pair of small stipules

- Flower: small, greenish yellow to yellow flowers borne on catkins 2.5-7.5 cm long in early spring at the same time as the new leaves appear.

- Fruit: is a 5 mm capsule which splits open when mature to release the numerous minute, down-covered seeds.

Special Adaptations:

- Black Willow roots are very bitter, and have been used as a substitute for quininein the past.

- The bark of the tree can also be used to make a bitter tea with similar chemical compounds to aspirin.

- native to eastern North America, from New Brunswick and southern Ontario west to Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and Texas

- Light and flexible willow wood is used for wicker-work furniture and basket. It does not split when nailes. Before the discovery of plastics, toys were made from willow. Artificial limbs, packing cases and some furniture parts are also willow products. Its warm brown tones and attractive grain make it a beautiful paneling wood.

- Willow grows on almost any soil, but its extensive, shallow roots need an abundant and continuous supply of moisture during the growing season.

- the species is most common on river margins and batture land, where it occupies (and usually dominates) the lower, wetter, and often less sandy sites. It is also common in swamps, sloughs, and swales, and on the banks of bayous, gullies, and drainage ditches, growing anywhere light and moisture conditions are favorable. It flourishes at, or slightly below, water level and is not appreciably damaged by flooding and silting