What are the characteristics of a cottonwood tree?

What are the characteristics of a cottonwood tree?

An identifying characteristics of the Eastern cottonwood tree is that beacuase its leaves are sail-like shaped with long flat stems they have a tendency to tremble and flutter from even the slightest breeze. Leaf: The leaf is very coarsely toothed, the teeth are curved and gland tipped, and the petiole is flat.

What are two characteristics of cottonwood trees?

Cottonwood trees are huge deciduous trees that have large green leaves and thick foliage. One of the common features of all types of cottonwood trees is the fluffy cotton-like strands that appear every June. Cottonwood trees are common in North America, Europe, and some parts of Asia.

What is the difference between poplar and cottonwood?

Differences. Cottonwoods have more triangular or heartshaped leaves than poplars, and the edges are slightly serrated. Poplar leaves have a more oval to oval-lance-like leaves. Cottonwoods are also taller, ranging between 80 and 200 feet, whereas the balsam poplar is only 80 feet and the black poplar a mere 40 to 50.

Are cottonwood trees native?

Origins and Size. Cottonwood trees are native to various parts of North America. For example, the Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) is native to the southwestern United States but also is hardy in other areas within U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 9. Cottonwoods (Populus spp.)

What kind of tree is a cottonwood?

Populus deltoides
Cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) are massive shade trees that grow naturally throughout the United States. You can recognize them at a distance by their broad, white trunks. They have lustrous, bright green foliage in summer that changes to brilliant yellow in fall. Read on for more cottonwood tree facts.

How do you identify cottonwood?

Mature trees have bark that is thick, grayish-brown, and deeply furrowed with scaly ridges. Young bark is smooth and thin. Branches are usually thick and long. Since the wood is weak, branches routinely break off, and foliage is uneven.

What kind of wood is cottonwood?

It is a diffuse, porous wood with a coarse texture. The wood is generally straight-grained and contains relatively few defects. Cottonwood is a true poplar; therefore, has similar characteristics and properties to aspen.

What kind of trees are cottonwood trees?

Cottonwoods are a species of flowering plants in the Salicaceae or the willow family. This refers to trees that belong to the genus Populus, section Aigeiros. Native to various parts of North America and western Asia, cottonwoods share many similarities with other poplars such as aspens and balsams.

What insects eat cottonwood?

Cottonless cottonwood trees may be attacked by tiny, sap-sucking aphids, soft and armored scale insects, and mealybugs. All of these pests have piercing, sucking mouthparts that allow them to feed on the juices of the tree’s leaves and tender new growth.

How tall does a cottonwood tree grow in a year?

Cottonwoods have an impressive growth rate and grow about 3 ft. (1 m) every year. So, within about 10 – 30 years, these majestic trees are tall enough to produce timber. Some types of cottonwood such as the narrowleaf and Fremont species can live for up to 150 years.

What kind of bark does a cottonwood tree have?

The bark is smooth and silvery-white when young and becomes hard, gray, and deeply fissured as the tree matures. Flowers on the eastern cottonwood species are reddish on male trees and yellowish-green on female trees. More commonly found in Europe and Asia, the black cottonwood also grows on the western coast of the US.

Where to find eastern cottonwood trees in North America?

Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides), one of the largest eastern hardwoods, is short-lived but the fastest-growing commercial forest species in North America. It grows best on moist well-drained sands or silts near streams, often in pure stands.

How to tell if a cottonwood tree is male or female?

Identification of Fremont’s cottonwood trees is by their cordate shape leaves (heart-shape), coarsely serrated edges, and elongated smooth-edged tip. Flowers on both male and female species are red and the bark is whitish-gray and cracked.