WhatFinger


Cottonwood & North America's Fluffy Streets



Eastern Cottonwood Trees ensure distribution of their seeds in many ingenious ways. Maples and ash produce whirring propellers; oaks drop acorns; apples tasty fruit. Then there is the Eastern Cottonwood, Populus deltoides. It packs tiny seeds in billows of white fluff. These drift the wind to optimistically fall on fertile soil in an acceptable location. And, as with most such tree prolific productions, almost none succeed. The creation of such is the responsibility of female trees, for the Eastern Cottonwood is dioecious, having separate male and female trees. It is also known as Carolina Poplar, Southern Cottonwood, Plains Cottonwood, Yellow Cottonwood, Big Cottonwood, Whitewood, and Necklace Poplar. Botanists also argue over the trees which, like all Populus, hybridize gleefully. This does nothing for the botanically-inclined state of mind. They do agree, however, Fremont Cottonwood, Populus fremontii, is a distinct species. Named after explorer of the western United States John Charles Fremont the tree grew in a grove where Spanish settlers in 1836 founded a mission called Alamo.
Eastern Cottonwood, P. deltoides, is a big tree. It may reach up to 45m (40-80ft) at maturity and attains such height rapidly. Unfortunately, in doing so, it sacrifices any claims to longevity. The remark 'a short life but a merry one' might have been coined for the cottonwood. While not considered suitable for urban planting, come late spring or early summer and its presence in the natural areas of bisecting water courses will be made obvious. The cottony fluff released from bulging pods of the female trees gathers in white drifts along streets and in gardens to the puzzlement of the uninitiated. Should their masses of seeds fail them, cottonwoods have an additional fallback. In common with many poplar species, they can throw up a mass of root suckers. Since these are exact clones of the parent tree, they will be all the same sex. Entire groves then may be male or female. Most cottonwoods fail to outlive human lifespans. Although often planted in rural areas as windbreaks, particularly on the prairies, only when well away from possible hum activities is an acceptable risk. As they age, the trees may shed large branches, particularly in wind or ice storms. In late winter this can yield twigs with fat sticky buds to temporarily at least decorate the home until they leaf out.  A woman's tongue is like poplar leaves, Rebecca Rupp records an ancient Greek saying, in other words, never still. She notes, however, that Greek men seemed to have kept up with conversation.

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Wes Porter -- Bio and Archives

Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.


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