BLACK WILLOW
Two-thirds natural size.
The bark is deeply divided into broad flat ridges, often becoming shaggy. The twigs, brittle at the base, are glabrous or pubescent, bright red-brown becoming darker with age. The winter buds are ⅛ inch long, covered with a single smooth scale. The wood is soft, light, close-grained, light brown and weak. It is often used in the manufacture of artificial limbs.
The alternate simple leaves are 3 to 6 inches long, and one-half inch wide on very short petioles; the tips are much tapered and the margins are finely toothed. They are bright green on both sides, turning pale yellow in the early autumn. The flowers are in catkins, appearing with the leaves, borne on separate trees. The staminate flowers of the black willow have 3 to 5 stamens each, while the white willow has flowers with 2 stamens.
The native peach-leaved willow, Salix amygdaloides Anders., is a smaller tree with leaves 2 to 6 inches long, ½ to 1½ inches wide, light green and shining above, pale and glaucous beneath, on petioles about ¾ inch long.
The white willow, Salix alba, L., and the crack willow, Salix fragilis L., with bright yellow twigs, are European species which are often planted for ornamental purposes. Their flowers have only 2 stamens each and their leaves are silky, bright green above and glaucous beneath. The latter has twigs that are very brittle at the base. Another European species is the weeping willow, Salix babylonica L., which may be known by its slender drooping branches.
