Salix nigra Marshall

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Salicaceae

• Scientific Name

  Salix nigra Marshall

• Description

  Species Description - Shrub or tree to 20 m or more, with 1–4 often leaning trunks to 5 dm thick; twigs slender, yellowish-brown to dark reddish-brown, often hairy when young; buds sharp-pointed, the scale with overlapping free margins; stipules usually well developed, to 12 mm, semicordate, acute, serrulate, often deciduous; lvs commonly pendulous, lance-linear or narrowly lanceolate, 6–10(–12) × 1–1.5(–2) cm, long-acuminate, often falcate, finely serrulate, the upturned lateral veins forming a continuous marginal vein, deep green above, paler beneath (but not or scarcely glaucous) and with very small areoles, often hairy when young; petioles 4–10 mm, usually hairy, commonly glandular at the tip; catkins with the lvs, slender, lax, 2.5–7 cm, on leafy peduncles 1–3 cm; scales yellowish, villous, deciduous; stamens (3–)6(7); fr ovoid-conic, 3–5 mm, glabrous; pedicels 0.5–1.5 mm; style 0.2 mm; 2n=38. Abundant in alluvial soil along streams and in meadows; s. N.B. to c. Minn., s. to Fla. and Tex., and w. across s. U.S. to Calif., s. into Mex. Ours is var. nigra. (S. marginata)

• Common Names

  black willow