Plant · P-142

Black Willow

Salix nigra

Black Willow only belongs in permanent water - the toe of a pond, a creek bank, or a wet outfall - where it stabilizes soil that would otherwise wash away and produces fodder leaves that rival alfalfa for poultry. It cannot handle upland alkaline clay: two independent sources rate its calcium carbonate tolerance low, and it develops lime-induced chlorosis outside its wetland habitat. Its bark yields salicin, the compound behind aspirin, long used for pain and fever, and beavers, deer and rabbits all browse it readily. The one place it must never go is directly on a pond dam, since its roots penetrate the dam core and cause leaks.