Index    Handbook of the Trees of New England by Lorin Low Dame, Henry Brooks

Populus heterophylla, L. Poplar. Swamp Poplar. Cottonwood.

Habitat and Range.—In or along swamps occasionally or often overflowed; rare, local, and erratically distributed.

Connecticut,—frequent in the southern sections; Bozrah (J. N. Bishop); Guilford, in at least three wood-ponds (W. E. Dudley in lit.), New Haven, and near Norwich (W. A. Setchell).

Habit.—A slender, medium-sized tree, attaining a height of 30-50 feet, reaching farther south a maximum of 90 feet; trunk 9-18 inches in diameter, usually branching high up, forming a rather open hemispherical or narrow-oblong head; branches irregular, short, rising, except the lower, at a sharp angle; branchlets stout, roundish, varying in color, degree of pubescence, and glossiness, becoming rough after the first year with the raised leaf-scars; spray sparse.

Bark.—Bark of trunk dark ash-gray, very rough, and broken into loosely attached narrow plates in old trees; in young trees light ash-gray, smooth at first, becoming in a few years roughish, low-ridged.

Winter Buds and Leaves.—Buds conical, acute, more or less resinous. Leaves 3-6 inches long, two-thirds as wide, densely white-tomentose when young, at length dark green on the upper side, lighter beneath and smooth except along the veins; outline ovate, wavy-toothed; base heart-shaped, lobes often overlapping; apex obtuse; leafstalk long, round, downy; stipules soon falling.

Inflorescence.—April to May. Sterile catkins when expanded 3-4 inches long, at length pendent; scales cut into irregular divisions, reddish; stamens numerous, anthers oblong, dark red: fertile catkins spreading, few and loosely flowered, gradually elongating; scales reddish-brown; ovary short-stalked; styles 2-3, united at the base; stigmas 2-3, conspicuous.

Fruit.—Fruiting catkins spreading or drooping, 4-5 inches long: capsules usually erect, ovoid, acute, shorter than or equaling the slender pedicels: seeds numerous, white-hairy.

Horticultural Value.—Not procurable in New England nurseries or from collectors; its usefulness in landscape gardening not definitely known.

Plate XVI.—Populus heterophylla.