Black Willow Salix Nigra B&B - Facts & Information You Would Love to Know



Posted: Thursday, October 15, 2009

by Dennis Sons
tn nursery

The Black Willow is a medium sized tree that belongs to the wetlands. It grows along stream, pond and lake edges in the wild, as it requires well-drained moist soil. It can reach up to 90 feet in height, its single trunk can measure about three feet in diameter, and therefore plant this tree in large gardens and yards. The Black Willow Salix Nigra is one of the only important species of the 90 willows that exist.

The leaves are shiny, long and narrow, almost slightly resembling a Willow Oak leaf, but are pointed and finely toothed. The color of the bark is dark brown and it is rough. If the branches are bent at the joint, they easily break because they are fragile, yet they are used to weave baskets. The Black Willow flowers from mid or late April to early May, at the same time the leaves also emerge. Borne in catkins, the flowers have females on the below side and males on the left side. They are distinguished apart only during the flowering season or the seed development time. The female flowers produce capsules, and when ripe, they split and reveal several cottony seeds that are dispersed by wind.

The production of seeds occurs when the tree is 10 years old but people do obtain viable seeds when the plant is at a younger age. If however you would like to wait for optimum seed to be developed, it occurs from 25 to 75 years with good seed crop every year. The seedling has to reach the seedbed in about 12 to 24 hours after falling so that the dry conditions do not reduce the viability. If you want the seedlings to grow well, make sure there is a lot of moisture available all throughout the growth season.

Black Willow is utilized in a variety of wood products and is considered an excellent stabilizer for eroding lands because of its root system that is dense. The tree grows best in an area that receives a rainfall of 1300mm of which about 500mm should occur during the growing season for it to be effective. It requires a temperature of 34 degrees C to 15 degrees C during the summer and winter seasons, but can survive in 46 to 50 degrees C as well. The life span of the tree is not too long, for unsound trees it is 85 years and for sound trees 70 years.

Take caution to protect Black Willow Salix Nigra from saps puckers, which have a yellow belly because they degrade the sawn lumber later. Protect the tree from attacks of insects like cottonwood borer because they girdle the base and kill the tree. Twig borers cause deformities in the branch because they feed on it. Some nurseries cultivate these trees and sell them when they are 5 to 8 feet tall, in Ball & Burlap , so that it is ready for planting in your yard or garden.

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