Description
Salix triandra ‘Black Maul’
Also known as ‘Almond Willow’, this is a robust, deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 10 m tall, usually multi-stemmed and bushy, with an irregular, often leaning crown. The young stems are shiny dark maroon-black, becoming scaly on older stems with large scales exfoliating to leave orange-brown patches. It forms an attractive tree with good autumn colour.
Black Maul is one of the most well known and used willows for basket work of all types due to its pliability, and dries to an olive green colour. If cultivating for this purpose, the plants should be cut to the ground each year in order to provide pliable stems the following year.
Willows also have medicinal uses (the source of aspirin), and are a useful component of wastewater treatment systems, soil stabilisation and phyto-remediation schemes, as the plants are said to take up heavy metals and other toxic substances. They also produce a huge amount of biomass which can be ‘chopped and dropped’ throughout the season, or put through a wood chipper, in a forest garden or syntropic food forest situation to provide carbon material and mulch for soil improvement in the form of ramial wood chip (RWC).
Willow branches can also be chopped and soaked in water for 24 hours to make a rooting hormone for cuttings. Willows provides excellent bee food in early spring for rearing brood.
Requires a sunny spot and moist soils, and will tolerate very wet soils and periodic flooding. Do not plant near buildings or drains as roots can be invasive.
Certified organic potted plant – please note we do not sell cuttings.
