Valley Willow

The Salix Gooddingii is commonly known as Black Willow, Dudley Willow, Goodding Willow, Valley Willow, as well as Western Black Willow

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Growing Regions

Goodding willow is distributed from northern California to southern Utah, southeast through New Mexico to the Texas panhandle, and west to Arizona and southern California. It is also found in river valleys of northern Mexico [16,18,19,31].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of Goodding willow is Salix gooddingii Ball. Recognized varieties are as follows [16,19,30]: S. gooddingii var. gooddingii S. gooddingii var. variabilis Ball Some authorities consider S. gooddingii a western variety of S. nigra. Dorn, however, considered them distinct species, citing differences in chemistry [30,34].

Goodding willow is dominant in many riparian communities of the West,
where it frequently codominates with Fremont cottonwood (Populus
fremontii) [24,27,28].  It is listed as a dominant plant species in the
following published classifications:

Classification of riparian habitat in the Southwest [21]
Southwestern riparian plant communities:  site characteristics,
   tree species distributions, and size-class structures [28]
Terrestrial natural communities of California [11]

Common plant associates of Goodding willow are Arizona sycamore
(Platanus wrightii), mesquite (Prosopis spp.), desertwillow (Chilopsis
linearis), and southwestern condalia (Condalia lyciodes) [7,9].

• More Valley Willow Information

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