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Gulf Black Willow

The Salix Nigra is commonly known as Black Willow, Gulf Black Willow, Scythe-leaved Willow, Southwestern Black Willow, as well as Swamp Willow

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Growing Regions

Black willow is found throughout the eastern United States, adjacent parts of Canada, and Mexico. Its range extends west from southern New Brunswick and central Maine to Quebec, southern Ontario, central Michigan, southeastern Minnesota, and eastern North Dakota. It occurs south and west to the Rio Grande just below its confluence with the Pecos River; and east along the Gulf Coast through the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia [5,8,11]. Black willow has been introduced in Utah where it is now common along many streambottoms [17].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of black willow is Salix nigra Marsh. [11,12,22,26,31]. Recognized varieties are S. nigra var. nigra Marsh., S. nigra var. altissima Sarg., S. nigra var. falcata (Pursh.) Torr., and S. nigra var. lindheimeri [20,22,26]. Salix nigra, S. gooddingii Ball, and S. amygdaloides Anderss. are closely related taxa commonly referred to as the black willows [26]. The three species are not easily distinguished morphologically, and in fact, some authorities consider S. gooddingii to be S. nigra var. vallicola Dudley or S. n. var. venulosa (Anderss.) Bebb. [5,8,36]. S. amygdaloides is sometimes considered to be S. nigra var. amygdaloides Anderss. [13]. For our purposes, however, these varieties will be considered as separate species. S. nigra hybridizes with S. amygdaloides (S. X glatfelteri Schneider); S. alba (S. X hankensonii Dode); and S. lucida (S. X schneider Boivin) [5,20,38].

Black willow occurs as a codominant in some early seral floodplain
communities [24,30].  It codominates with sandbar willow (Salix exigua)
on floodplains having the greatest water depths and the longest
hydroperiods of any of the shallow freshwater swamps of the southern
United States [24].  Black willow also codominates with eastern
cottonwood (Populus deltoides) in the lower Mississippi Valley [30].
Published classifications listing black willow as a codominant in
community types (cts) are listed below:

Area                            Classification          Authority

S. U.S.                         southern swamp &        Penfound 1952
                                marsh  cts                     
AR,MS: Lower                    cts                     Shelford 1954
Mississippi Valley

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Tesky, Julie L. 1992. Salix nigra. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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