Cottonwood

Populus deltoides

Eastern Cottonwood 

The eastern cottonwood comes by its name honestly, producing as many as 40 million seeds per tree each season, each attached to small white hairs that, together, resemble clusters of cotton balls hanging on the tree. Though considered one of North America’s largest hardwoods, its wood is relatively soft compared to other hardwoods, but it is still considered useful for making plywood.  

The following identification information is from Trees of Alabama, a Gosse Nature Guide by Lisa J. Samuelson. Use of this text was permitted by the University of Alabama. Order your own copy of this great guide to Alabama’s trees here: https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Alabama-Gosse-Nature-Guides/dp/0817359419

Willow or Poplar Family (Salicaceae)  

Eastern Cottonwood Populus deltoides Bartram ex Marshall  

COMMON NAMES eastern cottonwood, southern cottonwood, eastern poplar  

QUICK GUIDE Leaves alternate, simple, triangular, large, apex acuminate, margin with coarse rounded teeth, petiole long and flattened; twig and terminal bud stout; bark ash gray and deeply grooved.  

DESCRIPTION Leaves are alternate, simple, deciduous, and triangular; blade is 8-18 cm (3.1-7.1 in) long; apex is acute or acuminate; base is truncate; margin has coarse rounded teeth; petiole is flattened and long (10 cm [3.9 in]), with glands near the blade, and shakes in the wind; underside is glabrous; autumn color is yellow. Twigs are stout, yellow-brown, glabrous, and angled; leaf scar is heart shaped with three bundle scars. The terminal bud is stout, acute, angled; and up to 2 cm (0.8 cm) long; scales are overlapping, yellow-green, shiny, and sticky. Flowers are dioecious; staminate and pistillate flowers appear in catkins before the leaves. Fruit is a capsule, conical, two- to four-valved, and 6-12 mm (0.2-0.5 in) long, and releases cottonlike seeds in late spring. Bark is yellow-green to light gray-brown and smooth or shallowly grooved on small trees; large trees are light brown to ash gray and deeply grooved with thick ridges. The growth form is up to 30 m (100 ft) in height and 1 m (4 ft) in diameter.  

HABITAT Bottomlands, and edges of rivers and streams.  

NOTES Eastern cottonwood is a fast-growing tree found with boxelder, red maple, silver maple, river birch, numerous ashes, sweetgum, sycamore, willow oak, black willow, and American elm. The wood is white to gray, light, and soft, and is used for pulpwood, veneer, crates, and fuel. Because of very early rapid growth, it is used for windbreaks and waste site reclamation and in short-rotation woody-crop plantations. The leaves are browsed somewhat by deer and rabbits, and catkins and seeds are used by songbirds. The bark is eaten by beaver.  

Populus is Latin for “poplar tree”; deltoides refers to the Greek letter delta and the triangular leaves.  

SIMILAR SPECIES Swamp cottonwood (Populus heterophylla L.) is found primarily in the Southern Coastal Plain in wet clay bottoms and swamps and is distinguished by ovate leaves with smaller teeth on the margin, a mostly acute apex, and a more rounded or cordate leaf base.