Common Name: Eastern Cottonwood
Scientific Name: Populus deltoides
Other Names: Necklace poplar, Big Cotton-wood, Common Cottonwood, Liard.
Leaf: Simple, alternate, roughly triangle-shaped (hence the Latin name deltoides); leaves flutter in breeze; pointed tip; 5-10cm long and wide; thick light bright green, slightly paler underneath; teeth looks rounded but actually tipped and hooked slightly; tems flat, yellow, almost leaf length; 3-5 warty glands on the base of the leaf blade.
Flower: Flowers early in the spring before the leaves unfold; flowers tiny; 5-7cm long catkins are densely flowered; males and females on separate trees.
Fruit: Looks like hanging string of beads, 15-25cm long; capsules green, stalked, tapered, pointed; brown at maturity, split into 3-4 parts; release tiny brown seeds on tufts of cottony hairs.
Twig: Buds are brown, sticky(resinous), fragrant, shiny, hairless, pointed, 1.5-2cm long; twigs are thick, yellowish green-brown, smooth, ridged, almost square in cross-section.
Bark: Young bark smooth, grayish yellow tinged with green; older bark thick, deeply furrowed with round ridges.
Wood: Light, soft, weak; fine-textured, close-grained, porous; heartwood gray-brown; thick sapwood nearly white.
Facts About This Tree:
1. Cottonwood is the fastest growing native trees east of the Rockies, but lives only 50-70 years.
2. Once mature, it is about 25-30m tall and 80-120 thick in trunk diameter.
3. Centuries ago, eastern cottonwoods from North America were introduced into Europe where they spontaneously interbred with European black poplar. The offspring of this marriage, genus Carolina poplar, rapidly outgrew both parents and became the most widely planted hybrid tree in the world. Because of its rapid growth, resistance to disease, and wide range of use (pulp and paper, sawlogs, veneer, waferboard, crates, construction timbers, biomass energy, methanol, and feed for livestock) hybrid poplars are popular plantation trees.
4. Cottonwood’s leaf concentrate contains as much protein as meat does, and is faster and cheaper to produce.
Lat, Long: 43.78295, -79.59226
Diameter (DBH): 26.8 cm
Last Year Modified: 2015
Carbon Stored in this Tree: 135.66 kg of C
Equivalent CO2: 497.37 kg of C
Find more trees in Woodbridge.
Reference
1. Blouin, Glen. 2001. An Eclectic Guide to Trees East of the Rockies. Erin, ON. Boston Mills Press
2. Linda Kershaw. 2001. Trees of Ontario. Edmonton, AB Canada. Lone Pine Publishing
3. Farrar, J. L. 2007. Trees in Canada. ON. Canadian Forest Service.
4. Photo Credit: Daniel J. Kim, Wikimedia Commons, JanetandPhil (https://flic.kr/p/6sDa9B), Dan Mullen (https://flic.kr/p/7VcC8X).
Copyright 2015 Association for Canadian Educational Resources
Notable explorers and missionaries associated with the Humber River include Fathers Jean de Brebeuf and Joseph Chaumonot (1641), Father Louis Hennepin (1678), Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle (1680). Famous residents have included the Eaton family, founders of the department store empire, the Weston family and Canadian writer and historian Pierre Berton.