SALICACEAE 101 



SALIX. L. The Willows. 

 Salix nigra, Marshall. (Common^ or Black) Willow. 



A small to medium-sized tree, with trunk usually inclined 

 a little from the vertical, especially if growing on the bank of a 

 stream. Blooms in March, and ripens its feathery seeds about a 

 month later. 



The tree is sometimes planted, especially along roadsides in 

 damp ground. The twigs of this and other willows are often 

 bound together in huge raft-like mats and weighted down with 

 rocks to protect river-banks from erosion where such measures 

 are desirable. The wood is light, soft, and easily split, and is 

 used to some extent for boxes, crates, and excelsior, but the tree 

 is usually too small for saw-logs. Charcoal from it has been used 

 in the manufacture of gunpowder. The bark contains salicylic 

 acid, and has febrifugal and antipyritic properties. The flowers 

 also have some medicinal value. 



This willow grows along streams of all sizes, and in other 

 damp places, and seems to tolerate any amount of seasonal fluctua- 

 tion of water. It seems to like potash and lime, but has little need 

 of nitrogen or humus. Just what its reaction would be to fire is 

 not known, for the places in which it grows are pretty well pro- 

 tected from fire. It is often the first tree to take possession of 

 new mud flats (either natural or artificial) and sand-bars. It be- 

 haves something like a weed, springing up along gullies and ditches 

 in cultivated fields, and on mud flats made by washings from 

 brown iron ore mines. It is the commonest tree along most of our 

 rivers, especially on the soft banks on the inner sides of bends. 

 Sometimes a steep bank on which it grows caves in and carries the 

 roots of the willows several feet below the water-level, and in that 

 case they are soon drowned, though the whole tree might be sub- 

 merged for a few days by a flood without apparent injury. Prob- 

 ably most of the willows in the state at the present time are small 

 trees not over ten or fifteen feet tall, growing in places which 

 have been modified by civilization. 



It is common in every region except lA, IC, 2x'\, -i and 15, 

 and probably grows in every county. 



