Distinguishing Features: The best characteristics to identify this small tree are the narrow leaves with the teeth relatively far apart.
BLACK WILLOW
Salix nigra Marsh.
Growth Form: Medium to large tree up to 90 feet tall; trunk diameter up to three feet; crown usually round-topped, but sometimes irregular.
Bark: Rough, furrowed, forming elongated, vertical, rather tight scales.
Twigs: Slender, olive-green, smooth; leaf scars alternate, U-shaped, with 3 bundle traces.
Buds: Small, oblong, reddish-brown, up to one-eighth inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades narrowly lance-shaped, usually curved, long-pointed at the tip, rounded or tapering at the base, up to 6 inches long, finely toothed along the edges, green and shiny on the upper surface, smooth or hairy on the veins of the lower surface; leafstalks short, often surrounded at the base by a pair of green leaf-like stipules.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate flowers borne on separate trees, minute, crowded in elongated catkins, appearing as the leaves begin to unfold.
Fruit: Several narrow, flask-shaped, reddish-brown capsules up to one-eighth inch long, crowded in elongated clusters.