Black Willow ²

Identification:

The Black Willow tree can be 30 to 60 feet tall. Also, the Black Willow has soft wood. Its fine-grained wood is used to make artificial limbs, boxes, caning and baskets. These trees are found along many streams. The Black Willow’s branches are spreading branches and it has a dark trunk. Thin narrow leaves often have stipules like tiny heart-shaped collars at the base. The flowers are called catkins. They are less puffy than those of a pussy willow tree. Male and female flowers are borne on separate trees and form small hairy seeds.

Niche
The Black Willow is a producer. It is a producer because it gives food to other plants and animals. The Black Willow is also a producer because it makes oxygen. This helps the ecosystem because it gives the animals that eat the tree energy and oxygen. The oxygen is for all living things. If we didn't have any trees we wouldn't be here on this earth because there would be no oxygen for us to breathe.

Sites or books:

Trees: A Guide to Familiar American Trees by Herbert S. Zim and Alexander C. Martin

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Dan Mullen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/8583446@N05/3594438316
2. Adapted by snappingturtle4321 from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salix_nigra

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Atlas of Living Australia
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• eFloras.org
• Flora of North America (beta)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Go Botany
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• USDA PLANTS database
• VASCAN by Canadensys
• World Flora Online

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