# Carolina Willow (Salix caroliniana)

> The common small willow of southern swamps and stream banks, fast on wet ground, with early yellow catkins for bees and leaves that feed viceroys.

Also called coastal plain willow, swamp willow, Salix longipes. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/carolina-willow/

![Carolina willow (Salix caroliniana) spreading crown of narrow, bright green leaves against a blue sky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/carolina-willow-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASalix_caroliniana_kz01.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 15 to 30 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 6 to 10
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, floodplain forests, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 22 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)). Also recorded, not native, in [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Wet, Average
- Growth rate: Fast
- Flowers: March to May
- Fruit: Cottony seed, April to June
- First crop: 5 to 10 years
- Mature spread: 30 ft
- Traits: Tolerates wet soil, Wildlife value, Honey tree
- Sold as: Saplings

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Carolina willow is the common small tree willow of the low country of the Southeast, at home on stream banks and in swamps, marshes, ditches and pond edges, usually over limy ground. Its long, narrow leaves are glossy green above and whitish beneath, and wider than those of black willow. It is at its best in early spring, when it blooms yellow and then sets masses of white, cottony fruit while little else is in flower. Set it in a rain garden, a bioswale or a wet corner by a pond.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Carolina willow grows fast, about 2.75 feet a year in our growth estimator. Expect a small tree of 15 to 30 feet, often on several stems, with a spreading, open crown 15 to 30 feet wide.

Yellow catkins open from March to May, as the leaves come, and bees work them for pollen and nectar. Female trees then shed masses of white, cottony seed from April to June. The leaves feed viceroy, mourning cloak, red-spotted purple and eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillars, and its thickets give wildlife cover.

It grows wild from southern Pennsylvania and Maryland south through Florida, and west to central Texas, Oklahoma and eastern Kansas. Look for it on floodplains, in swamps, marshes and ditches, and along rocky streams, usually over limy ground. Ohio lists it as potentially threatened, and NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Mississippi and Pennsylvania.

## How to grow Carolina Willow

Carolina willow needs full sun or light shade and soil that never dries out, from wet sand to clay, and it takes standing water. It is not drought tolerant. It takes some salty wind, but not salt spray or flooding with salt water. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and at least 15 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 15 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Willow seed lives only a few weeks, too short a time to sell it as a packet. To raise your own, sow it on the surface of wet, bare soil the day the capsules open, and keep it moist. It also grows from stem and root cuttings.

Water weekly through the first summer unless the ground stays wet. Guard young trees from deer, rabbits and beavers for the first few years. Prune in the dormant season to train it to a tree, since it often grows as a shrub with several stems.

Trees are male or female, and bees carry pollen from the male catkins to the female ones. Willow seedlings bear their first seed at 5 to 10 years. Its wood is weak and breaks easily. Willow scab, black canker, powdery mildew and crown gall can strike, and aphids, scale, leaf beetles and borers feed on it.

## Sources

- [Flora of North America, vol. 7: Salix caroliniana](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242417196)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Salix caroliniana](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/salix-caroliniana/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Salix caroliniana](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=SACA5)
- [Florida Native Plant Society Plant Database: Salix caroliniana](https://www.fnps.org/plant/salix-caroliniana)
- [UF/IFAS Florida 4-H Forest Ecology: Carolina Willow](https://florida4h.ifas.ufl.edu/florida-4-h-forest-ecology/forest-ecology-contest/contest-stations/trees-of-florida/carolina-willow/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Salix chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Salix.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Salix caroliniana](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/SACA5)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Salix caroliniana](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.139202/Salix_caroliniana)
- [Ohio Department of Natural Resources: Ohio Rare Native Plants Status List 2024-25](https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/odnr/natural-areas/2024-25_Ohio_Rare_Native_Plants_Status_List_FINAL_draft.pdf)
- [Mississippi Natural Heritage Program: Special Plant Tracking List 2018](https://www.mdwfp.com/sites/default/files/2024-03/special-plant-tracking-list-2018.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)
- [Leaf litter, not wood chips, under the canopy](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/leaf-litter-not-wood-chips/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other willows (Salix) we grow: [Bebb's Willow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bebb-willow/index.html.md), [Florida Willow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-willow/index.html.md), [Missouri River Willow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/missouri-river-willow/index.html.md), [Peachleaf Willow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/peachleaf-willow/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Swamp Laurel Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-laurel-oak/index.html.md), [Willow Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/willow-oak/index.html.md) and [Swamp Tupelo](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-tupelo/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Carolina Willow, add ?species=carolina-willow with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 6, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=carolina-willow&zone=6&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Carolina Willow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=carolina-willow): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=carolina-willow): whether Carolina Willow can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can lift it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Carolina Willow as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=carolina-willow (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Carolina Willow is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=carolina-willow (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Carolina Willow needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 5 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=carolina-willow:5
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Carolina Willow where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=carolina-willow&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Carolina Willow goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=carolina-willow&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Carolina Willow flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=carolina-willow