Black Willow (Salix Nigra)

When most herbalists think about willow, they think about white willow, Salix alba, which is easy enough to find at health food stores. Otherwise, the word 'willow' might conjure up images of the graceful landscape tree with long trailing branches. That would be weeping willow, or Salix babylonica. Very few people are aware of our native willow species, Salix nigra, or its herbal history.

Black willows have a much less dramatic appearance than the familiar and flamboyant weeping willows. Still graceful, but much more upright and slender. They love to keep their feet wet, and the ones I spend time around have grown up amongst white oak, tulip trees, maples and sweet gums in an area near a small creek. They are currently in their seed-setting stage, so there is a great deal of fluff wandering about in the air. I find it rather playful and endearing, although my friends have explained to me that it is, in fact, a Dreadful Nuisance.

Although it isn't much used by herbalists now, black willow was used by the Eclectic physicians, and appears in several of their Materia Medica reference books. 

According to King's American Dispensary (1898), the bark, root and aments (the long, drooping clusters of flowers) were all used for certain purposes.

Similar to white willow, the bark of black willow contains salicin and tannins. It was used to make poultices for gangrene and ulcers, and also to make a cream for the rash caused by poison ivy.

The root was used as a bitter tonic, taken internally for "intermittents" (recurring fevers), asthma, or gout.

Interestingly, the aments are cited as being used to make the preferred preparation of black willow. This is very different than white willow, where only the bark seems to have been favored. The aments, like the bark, were cited as being beneficial for gangrene. However, their main use seemed to be as an anaphrodisiac. Considering the time period in which the Dispensary was written, we find such language as

"it is especially adapted to the disorders of the sexually intemperate male or female, and of the youth, subject day or night to libidinous suggestions and lascivious dreams terminating in pollutions. . ."

The Dispensary goes on to amend that:

"Not only does salix nigra act as a check to sexual passion and misuse, but it proves a useful tonic and sedative to many conditions following in the wake of sexual intemperance, among which may be mentioned spermatorrhoea its varied forms, and prostatitis, cystitis, and ovaritits."

All of which would strongly suggest that, Victorian prudishness aside, the herb has an effect on the central nervous system, and also that it has cooling actions in the body with an affinity to the reproductive organs. 

In fact, Ellingwood, in The American Materia Medica (1919), had this to say about black willow:

"It will exercise a direct and satisfactory influence in many cases of hysteria, overcoming the extreme excitability and nervousness, headache and the globus hystericus, and will permit quiet, restful sleep. It will serve an excellent purpose in these cases in combination with general nerve tonics and restoratives, greatly enhancing their influence."

So it looks like it could be a very useful herb to add to nervine blends or central nervous system tonics.

Ellingwood also mentioned the use of the aments rather than the bark.

It looks like all of our willows have gone to seed, so I suppose I will have to wait until next year to make an extract. Might be able to make a salve or cream from the bark though- which would be good to have on hand because we have plenty of poison ivy to go around! Who knows, though? I might be able to find a late bloomer or two.