Common Cottonwood

Order: Salicales

Family: Salicaceae

Genus: Populus

Species: P. deltoides

Identifying Characteristics:

- A tall tree with coarse-toothed leaves which have 2-3 small but obvious glands at top of flattened leafstalks.

- twigs usually hairless, yellowish, sometimes 4-angled on vigorous shoots

- end buds 1"; quite gummy. They have 6-7 scales and are not spicy- fragrant when crushed

- Bark smooth, yellow-green when young but on mature trees dark and ridged

- The leaves are large, deltoid (triangular), 4–10 cm long and 4–11 cm broad with a truncated (flattened) base and a 3–12 cm long, the leaf is very coarsely toothed, the teeth are curved and gland tipped, the petiole is flat; they are dark green in the summer and turn yellow in the fall (but many cottonwoods in dry locations drop their leaves early from the combination of drought and leaf rust, making their fall color dull or absent)

Special Adaptations:

- It needs bare soil and full sun for successful germination and establishment; in natural conditions, it usually grows near rivers, with mud banks left after floods providing ideal conditions for seedling germination; human soil cultivation has allowed it to increase its range away from such habitats