SALICACEAE 
Black Willow 
Salix nigra Marsh. 
HABIT.—A tree 30-50 feet high, with a short trunk, 1-2 
feet in diameter; stout, spreading branches form a broad, rather 
irregular, open crown. Often a shrub. 
LEAVES.—Alternate, simple, 3-6 inches long, %4-34 inch 
broad; lanceolate, very long-pointed, often curved at the tip; 
finely serrate; thin; bright green and rather lustrous above, paler 
and often hairy beneath; petioles very short, more or less 
pubescent. 
FLOWERS.— April-May, with the leaves; dioecious; borne 
in crowded, slender, hairy catkins, 1-3 inches long; calyx 0; 
corolla o; scales yellow, villous, stamens 3-6; ovary ovoid- 
conical, short-stalked, with stigmas nearly sessile. 
FRUIT.—June; ovoid-conical capsule, 4% inch long, contain- 
ing many minute seeds which are furnished with long, silky, 
white hairs. 
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud absent; lateral buds nar- 
row-conical, acute, lustrous, red-brown, % inch long. 
'BARK.—Twigs glabrous or pubescent, bright red-brown, 
becoming darker with age; thick, dark brown or nearly black 
on old trunks, deeply divided into broad, flat ridges, often be- 
coming shaggy. 
WOOD.—Light, soft, weak, close-grained, light red-brown, 
with thin, whitish sapwood. 
DISTRIBUTION.—Common throughout the state. 
HABITAT.—Banks of streams and lake-shores. 
NOTES.—Branchlets very brittle at the base, and these, 
broken off by the wind, are carried down stream, often catching 
in the muddy banks and there taking root. 
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