diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 48a3bbf..41f45c8 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ Next release
 - Add an ``colander.SchemaNode.__iter__`` method, which iterates over
   the children nodes of a schema node.
 
+- The constructor of a ``colander.SchemaNode`` now accepts a
+  ``widget`` keyword argument, for use by Deform (it is not used
+  internally).
+
 0.7.1 (2010/06/12)
 ------------------
 
diff --git a/colander/__init__.py b/colander/__init__.py
index 2cadd6b..6018513 100644
--- a/colander/__init__.py
+++ b/colander/__init__.py
@@ -1158,6 +1158,9 @@ class SchemaNode(object):
       ``''`` (the empty string).  The description is used by
       higher-level systems (not by Colander itself).
 
+    - ``widget``: The 'widget' for this node.  Defaults to ``None``.
+      The widget attribute is not interpreted by Colander itself, it
+      is only meaningful to higher-level systems such as Deform.
     """
     
     _counter = itertools.count()
@@ -1175,6 +1178,7 @@ class SchemaNode(object):
         self.name = kw.pop('name', '')
         self.title = kw.pop('title', self.name.capitalize())
         self.description = kw.pop('description', '')
+        self.widget = kw.pop('widget', None)
         if kw:
             raise TypeError('Unknown keyword arguments: %s' % repr(kw))
         self.children = list(children)
diff --git a/colander/tests.py b/colander/tests.py
index b5c8323..d77447c 100644
--- a/colander/tests.py
+++ b/colander/tests.py
@@ -1296,7 +1296,11 @@ class TestSchemaNode(unittest.TestCase):
                              title='title', description='desc')
         self.assertEqual(node.description, 'desc')
 
-    def test_ctor_with_bad_kwarg(self):
+    def test_ctor_with_widget(self):
+        node = self._makeOne(None, 0, widget='abc')
+        self.assertEqual(node.widget, 'abc')
+
+    def test_ctor_with_bad_kwargs(self):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, self._makeOne, None, 0, foo=1)
 
     def test_required_true(self):