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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Salix nigra
Out of nearly 90 species of Willows native to North America, the Black Willow is the largest and most wide-ranging. It makes an excellent replacement for the nonnative hybrid Weeping Willow. Weeping Willow is plagued with a short lifespan, weak limbs which often break, and horrendous disease and pest susceptibilities. Black Willow as well as other native Willows and Cottonwoods succeed in similar habitats, but with none of the headache.
Willows have remarkable ecological value and support a huge diversity of wildlife. They feed birds, butterflies and moths, beavers, deer, and rabbits. They provide habitat to fish, aquatic insects, and birds. Their roots help combat erosion and maintain the banks of watercourses.
Willows are also extremely useful to humans. The bark of the roots and inner bark of above-ground parts is intensely bitter and was a former substitute for quinine (treatment of malaria). Salicylic acid (from the Willow genus, Salix) provides the bitter flavor. Salicylic acid is used as an astringent in skincare and also breaks down into the painkilling chemical aspirin. It was employed by Native Americans like the Ojibwe as a tea to treat headaches, pains, heartburn, scurvy, and labor pains during birth.
The wood of the Black Willow has great commercial importance. Various historical uses include millwork, furniture, doors, cabinetwork, boxes, barrels, crates, toys, and pulpwood. During the American Revolution, the wood of various native Willows made high-grade charcoal which could be used to manufacture gunpowder. The young stems are flexible and split easily. Therefore, they have been extensively employed in making baskets, containers, and furniture. The bark separates easily from the wood and may be used to make Willow whistles.
Salicaceae (Willow)
A small to medium-sized deciduous tree with a massive trunk and spreading, irregular crown. Bark is brown to gray-black with thick, scaly ridges and deep furrows. Leaves are alternate, simple, pinnately veined, lanceolate, 3-6” long, and possess finely serrated margins. Flowering is dioecious. Both males and females are borne on 1-3” long catkins in early summer. Fruits are cone-shaped dehiscent capsules with many small, cottony seeds, borne in catkins, and maturing in mid-summer.
10-30 feet tall and 15-20 feet wide
A small to medium-sized deciduous tree with a massive trunk and spreading, irregular crown
Very fast
Full sun to partial sun
Plant in rich, moist, deep, and well-drained soils. Site directly near water for best results. Mature specimens are more drought tolerant, but poorly sited Willows are often some of the first to die in droughts.
Assets include Black Willow’s spectacular wispy form, its catkins in spring, and the fluffy seed capsules in summer and fall. It may be planted for use in arrangements or crafts such as basketry.
Black Willow has fibrous, dense root systems useful for stabilizing stream banks and providing erosion control. It may be planted in long rows along both sides of rivers, streams, and creeks to stabilize them. It makes an excellent specimen tree.
Foliar host for the caterpillars of the Mourning Cloak, Red-Spotted Purple, Acadian Hairstreak, Tiger Swallowtail, and Viceroy butterflies. The seeds are eaten by songbirds, while the down of the seeds is often employed as an insulating liner for nests. The foliage, young twigs, and buds are food for browsing mammals like deer, rabbits, and beavers. The canopy often provides shade and cooling to riparian habitats, allowing for the spawning of fish and aquatic insects.
Native across much of eastern and central North America from Florida north to Quebec, west to Manitoba, and south through Nebraska to Texas. It favors areas of alluvial deposition.
Stringent seed germination requirements—to succeed, mimic the constantly moist, rich, silty nature of alluvial floodplains; cuttings root extremely easily
Written by Kevin Tarner, Georgia Wildlife Federation
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