New England,—occasional throughout, frequent along the larger streams.
South to Florida; west to Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian territory, Louisiana, Texas, southern California, and south into Mexico.
Habit.—A large shrub or small tree, 25-40 feet high and 10-15 inches in trunk diameter, attaining great size in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and the valley of the lower Colorado; trunk short, surmounted by an irregular, open, often roundish head, with stout, spreading branches, slender branchlets, and twigs brittle towards their base.
S. nigra, var. falcata, Pursh., covers about the same range as the type and differs chiefly in its narrower, falcate leaves.
Bark.—Trunk rough, in young trees light brown, in old trees dark-colored or nearly black, deeply and irregularly ridged, separated on the surface into thick, plate-like scales; branchlets reddish-brown; twigs bronze olive.
Winter Buds and Leaves.—Buds narrowly conical, acute. Leaves simple, alternate, appearing much later than those of S. discolor, 2-5 inches long, somewhat pubescent on both sides when young, when mature green and smooth above, paler and sometimes pubescent along the veins beneath; outline narrowly lanceolate, finely serrate; apex acute or acuminate, often curved; base acutish to rounded or slightly heart-shaped; petiole short, usually pubescent; stipules large and persistent, or small and soon falling.
Inflorescence.—April to May. Appearing with the leaves from the axils of the short, lateral shoots, in catkins, sterile and fertile on different trees, stalked,—sterile spreading, narrowly cylindrical; calyx none; corolla none; bracts entire, rounded to oblong, villous, ciliate; stamens about 5: fertile catkins spreading; calyx none; corolla none; bracts ovate to narrowly oblong, acute, villous; ovary short-stalked, with two small glands at its base, ovate-conical, sometimes obovate, smooth; stigmas 2, short.
Fruit.—Fertile catkins drooping: capsules ovate-conical, short-stemmed, minutely granular; style very short: seeds numerous.
Horticultural Value.—Hardy in New England; grows rapidly in all soils, particularly useful in very wet situations; seriously affected by insects; occasionally offered in nurseries; transplanted readily; propagated from cuttings.