Cottonwood

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Cottonwood

The cottonwoods are three species of poplar

Poplar

Populus is a genus of between 25?35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere....
s in the section Aegiros of the genus Populus, native to North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and western Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
.

Those in section Populus are large deciduous tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s 20-45 m tall, distinguished by thick, deeply fissured bark

BARK

BARK was an early Electromechanics. BARK was built using standard phone relays, implementing a 32-bit binary machine and could perform addition in 150 ms and multiplication in 250 ms....
, and triangular-based to diamond-shaped leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
, green on both sides (without the whitish wax on the undersides of balsam poplar leaves), and without any obvious balsam scent in spring.

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Encyclopedia

The cottonwoods are three species of poplar

Poplar

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, Europe

Europe

Asia

TREE

BARK

Leaf

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are in separate catkin

Catkin

A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollination but sometimes insect pollinated ....
s, appearing before the leaves in spring. The seeds are borne on cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
y structures which allow them to be blown long distances in the air before settling to ground. The cottonwoods are exceptionally tolerant of flooding, erosion

Erosion

For morphological image processing operations, see Erosion 'For use of in dermatopathology, see Erosion Erosion is the removal of solids in the natural environment....
and flood deposits filling around the trunk.

In the past up to five or six species were accepted, but recent trends have been to accept just three species, treating the others as subspecies of P. deltoides.

The Eastern Cottonwood
Eastern Cottonwood

The Eastern Cottonwood is a cottonwood poplar native to North America, growing throughout the eastern, central, and southwestern United States, the southernmost part of eastern Canada, and northeastern Mexico....
Populus deltoides is one of the largest North American hardwood

Hardwood

The term hardwood is used to describe wood from non-monocot flowering plant trees and for those trees themselves. These are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen....
trees, although the wood is rather soft. It is a riparian zone tree. It occurs throughout the eastern United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
and just into southern Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
. The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are alternate and simple, with coarsely-toothed (crenate/serrate) edges, and subcordate at the base. The leaf shape is roughly triangular, hence the species name, deltoides.

In the typical subspecies deltoides (Vermont

Vermont

Vermont is a U.S. state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. The state ranks 43rd by land area, , and 45th by total area....
south to northern Florida

Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
and west to about Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Anishinaabe language term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
), the leaves are broad triangular, 7-15 cm across at the base. Further west (Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents....
south to eastern Texas

Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
), the subspecies molinifera (Plains Cottonwood; syn. P. sargentii) has somewhat narrower leaves 5-10 cm wide at the base. This is also the state tree

List of U.S. state trees

This List of U.S. state trees includes official trees of the following U.S. state and U.S. possessions:...
of Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a U.S. state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and Western United States.Nebraska probably gets its name from the archaic Chiwere language words ?? Br?sge or the Omaha-Ponca language N? Bth?ska meaning "flat water," after the Platte River that flows through the state....
, Wyoming

Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
and Kansas

Kansas

The State of Kansas is a Midwestern U.S. state in the Central United States of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the United States "Heartland"....
. In western Texas, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a U. S. State located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. Inhabited by Native Americans in the United States populations for many centuries, it has also has been part of the Spanish Empire viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S....
and Colorado

Colorado

The State of Colorado is a U.S. state located in the Mountain States of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Western United States and Southwestern United States regions of the United States....
the subspecies wislizeni (Rio Grande Cottonwood; syn. P. wislizeni) occurs.

The Fremont cottonwood Populus fremontii occurs in California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
east to Utah

Utah

The State of Utah is a western United States U.S. state of the United States. It was the List of U.S. states by date of statehood admitted to the United States on January 4, 1896....
and Arizona

Arizona

The State of Arizona is a U.S. state located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona....
and south into northwest Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
; it is similar to Eastern Cottonwood, differing mainly in the leaves having fewer, larger serrations on the edge, and small differences in the flower and seed pod structure.

The third species, Black Poplar
Black Poplar

Black poplar is a species of poplar in the cottonwood section of the genus Populus, native to Europe, southwest and central Asia, and northwest Africa....
Populus nigra, native of Europe and western Asia, is distinct in its much smaller leaves, 5-11 cm across, with a more rhombic (diamond) shape; see the link for further details.

Cultivation and uses

Cottonwoods are widely grown for timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Lumber, i.e. wood materials* Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S. state of Oregon* Timber , a 1984 arcade game by Bally Midway...
production along wet river banks, where their exceptional growth rate provides a large crop of wood within just 10-30 years. The wood is coarse and of fairly low value, used for pallet boxes, shipping crates and similar, where a coarse but cheap and strong wood is suitable. They are also widely grown as screens and shelterbelts. Many of the cottonwoods grown commercially are the hybrid between Eastern Cottonwood and Black Poplar, Populus × canadensis (Hybrid Black Poplar or Carolina Poplar).

Felling a cottonwood tree usually involves making an initial deep chainsaw cut to drain the water.

Cottonwood bark is often a favorite medium for artisans. The bark, which is usually harvested in the fall after a tree's death, is generally very soft and easy to carve.

Cottonwood is one of the poorest woods to use as Wood fuel

Wood fuel

Wood fuel is wood used as fuel. The combustion of wood is currently the largest use of energy derived from a solid fuel biomass. Wood fuel can be used for cooking and heating, and occasionally for fueling steam engines and steam turbines that electricity generation....
. It does not dry well, and rots quickly. It splits poorly, because it is very fibrous. It produces the lowest BTUs per cord

Cord (unit of volume)

The cord is a unit of measure of dry measure volume used in Canada and the United States to measure firewood and pulpwood. One cord, also commonly called a full cord or bush cord, is defined as ,...
of wood.

Cottonwoods serve as food for the caterpillar

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous....
s of several Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is an order of insect that includes moths and butterfly. It is one of the most speciose orders in the class Insecta, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterfly, skipper , and Hedylidae....
. See List of Lepidoptera that feed on poplars.

External links

Large-format diagnostic photographs, species information. Morton Arboretum
Morton Arboretum

The Morton Arboretum, in Lisle, Illinois, Illinois, covers 1,700 acres and is made up of gardens of various plant types and collections of trees from specific taxonomical and geographical areas....
acc. 144-91-6
The largest tree by circumference in Minnesota
Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents....
is a populus deltoides at 394 inches (1,001 centimeters) measured at the trunk 4 and 1/2 feet (137 cm) above the ground. This tree is 106 feet (32.31 meters) tall.

Large Ohio Cottonwood Tree