Black Willow
Salix nigra Marsh.
Also known as Swamp Willow.
Mature Size: 30 to 50 feet in height and 1 to 2 feet in diameter.
Form: Often multistemmed, with trunks twisted, curved or leaning, and a spreading, irregular crown.
Habitat: Common along streams, in wet depressions and other areas with the water table close to the surface.
Leaves
Alternate, 3 to 6 inches long and ½ to ¾ inches wide, pointed, often slightly curved, with finely toothed edges.
Flowers
Tiny, green, on 1 to 3 inch fuzzy-looking catkins; males and females on separate trees.
Fruit
Produced only on female trees; cone-shaped capsule splitting to release many small, cottony seeds, which can blow long distances.
Bark
Light brown, tinged with orange, to dark brown or nearly black; deeply divided into broad, flat ridges that separate into thick, plate-like scales; shaggy on older trees.
Twigs
Slender, orange-brown, with a bitter aspirin taste; buds small, covered by one scale; twigs brittle and easily broken at the junction with the previous year's growth.
Values and Uses
Willow wood is light and soft. Although not a major timber tree, the wood has been used in boxes and crates, as core stock in furniture, for woodenware and novelties, charcoal and pulp. Black willow is a good soil stabilizer, especially along stream banks. Cuttings root easily when planted in moist soil, and the dense mat of roots holds the soil in place. Willow's naturally occurring chemical salicin was an original component of aspirin and is still used today, although it is now manufactured artificially rather than extracted from willow. Before the development of plastics, black willow was used for artificial human limbs.
Did You Know?
Weeping willow (Salix babylonica), a related species, is not native to Virginia but to Asia. This popular ornamental tree has become naturalized along stream banks and pond edges, where its graceful, streaming branches make it easy to recognize.
