COTTONWOOD
Populus deltoides, Marsh.
Form.—Height 50-100 feet, diameter 3-5 feet; trunk usually continuous and tapering; horizontal and ascending branches forming a long pyramidal crown.
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, deltoid or broadly ovate, 3-5 inches long, margins coarsely crenate toothed except at base and apex, dark shining green above, paler beneath, petioles 2-3 inches long, laterally flattened.
Flowers.—April, before the leaves; dioecious; staminate in short drooping catkins; pistillate in elongating looser catkins.
Fruit.—Capsule 2-4-valved on long drooping catkins; brown seeds covered with a dense mat of long white hairs.
Bark.—Rough on old trees, with deep fissures and with more or less parallel and connected rounded ridges.
Wood.—Light, soft, not easily seasoned, brown with thick whitish sapwood.
Range.—Southern Canada to Florida and west to the Rocky Mountains.
Distribution in West Virginia.—Infrequent; South Branch of the Potomac River near Romney, Hampshire County, and near Petersburg, Grant County. Found at a few other points along the Potomac and its tributaries.
Habitat.—Prefers rich moist soil, along the banks of streams.
Notes.—The Cottonwood, commonly known as Carolina Poplar, is the largest of our true poplars. It is rare and of little value where it grows naturally in the State, but is extensively planted as a shade tree. This species is a very rapid grower but otherwise has little to recommend it for ornamental planting.