Identifying cottonwood in winter

Populus deltoides (aka Eastern cottonwood, Eastern poplar)

Several characteristics of the mature Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides) make it easy to identify, even at a distance.

• Height -- The Eastern cottonwood is typically very tall, up to 100 feet in height in favorable conditions. The crown can be as wide as the tree's height, if it is not crowded by other trees.
• High crown -- The lowest branches may not be within reach; rather, they may be high overhead. Cottonwoods aren't trees that invite climbing.
• Massive branches -- The limbs usually head off from the trunk in a somewhat upright direction, and they are large and long. If the limbs appear delicate in comparison to the trunk, it's probably not a cottonwood. As the branches grow longer, they tend to arch a little, giving the tree a vase-like shape.
• Rugged and often ragged shape -- The tree has weak wood, and its branches often break in heavy storms. Dead wood is a light gray or nearly white, after the bark falls off.
• Moist location -- The Eastern cottonwood loves any site with damp ground. This includes stream and pond banks, road ditches, moist ravines, floodplains, swamp edges, and any other area with plenty of moisture. It even tolerates standing in water for short periods of time. (Cottonwood also tolerates dryer sites, but often it was introduced to such places, rather than growing there naturally.)

As the observer draws closer to the tree, another distinctive feature becomes evident:

• The rough bark of the trunk and large branches has deep vertical furrows, and its color is ash gray. In contrast, the bark of the twigs is light tan or yellowish brown -- though the twigs may be too high in the air to see them clearly!

And last but not least, look for brown, triangular leaves with long stems and zigzag edges, lying on the ground below the tree. (The word deltoides in the cottonwood's Latin name means triangular, like a river delta.)

I am rather fond of cottonwood trees because so many grew on the grounds of the one-room country school I attended in northern Nebraska. I believe they were Eastern cottonwoods rather than the closely-related plains cottonwood.

Our schoolhouse sat on a low meadow. Water often stood on one end of the playground in winter (we ice-skated at recess), and in spring when the snow and ice melted, the road ditches became little streams. It was a perfect place for cottonwoods.

The cottonwoods grew on three of the four sides of the school grounds. They were great for hide-and-seek. A few of the trunks were so large that several children could hide behind them -- what fun!

My schoolmates and I were upset when our fathers got together one day and cut down one of our favorite trees for hiding. It was old, and they were afraid it was going to drop limbs on the schoolhouse.

I took three of the photographs in this post in Christian County, KY. The little clump of cottonwoods in the top photo grows in a low spot near the Hopkinsville High School. Water collects there whenever there's a heavy rain. I took the two creek-bank photos in eastern Christian County. The stream is the South Fork of Little River, near its origin.

Credit for the great photo looking straight up the cottonwood trunk: USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Herman, D.E., et al. 1996. North Dakota tree handbook. USDA NRCS ND State Soil Conservation Committee; NDSU Extension and Western Area Power Administration, Bismarck.

Kentucky forest report ready for review

Kentucky's Statewide Assessment of Forest Resources

The Kentucky Division of Forestry report, mandated by the 2008 Federal Farm Bill (the Food, Conservation And Energy Act Of 2008),  is ready for public review and comment. It will be submitted in June 2010. It focuses on five issues of greatest concern to Kentucky citizens that were identified in an earlier survey:

1. Forest health
2. Water quality and quantity
3. Forest loss and fragmentation
4. Forest management
5. Funding

Big white oak trees of the past

Giant oaks of the primeval forest

I came across an item in an old newspaper about a very large white oak that was harvested in Breckenridge County, Kentucky. It piqued my curiosity, so I located the stories of a few more big oaks that were cut from the virgin forests of the greater Ohio River valley. I've quoted four of the news items below.

As large as these white oaks were, they did not rival the size of a white oak that was cut in Holden, West Virginia, in 1938. That giant was reported to be the largest white oak in the world. It was 9 feet in diameter and nearly 100 feet tall, and it was estimated to contain 15,000 board feet of lumber.

Big Oak Log

It required ten horses to haul a big white oak log which was brought to town last week, by T. W. Sanders, to be shipped to Evansville[, Indiana, down the Ohio River]. The log measured out 1,519 feet, was 49 inches in diameter at the small end and 54 inches at the large end. It belonged to the timber firm of Cooper & Williams and was cut on a tract of land near Tar Springs. One of the finest lot of oak timber ever cut in the county was hauled to town this year from this tract of land, many logs out of several hundred averaging a thousand feet by measure.

Source: The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) November 02, 1904

Paris, [Kentucky,] May 17 [1900].--A big oak that has for many years been an object of Riley Howse in Nicholas county has been sold to Ossian Edwards, of Paris, for $110. It measured forty-five feet in circumference and seven feet five inches in diameter. Large crowds witnessed the fall of the monster tree.

Source: Crittenden press. (Marion, Ky.) May 24, 1900

A Big White Oak
From the Chicago Tribune

A short time ago a New-York firm sent an agent to Scottsburg, Ind., to purchase a large white oak tree, which measured 27 feet in circumference. They bought the tree for $75, and set to work to get out as large a board as possible. The tree was felled and ripped up by means of a crosscut saw. They got out one board that was 10 inches thick, 5 feet 2-1/2 inches wide at the butt and 4 feet 8-1/2 inches wide at the top and 32 feet long. This board was loaded upon a broad-tread wagon to which two yoke of oxen and eight horses were hitched, and it took one whole day to remove it one and a half miles. This was probably the largest white oak tree in the United States.

Source: The New York Times, April 7, 1889

The largest white oak tree ever cut in the United States came out of Trumbull county, Ohio, a few years ago. It was delivered to a timber mill, and measured 62 feet in length and seven feet through, and contained 7,365 feet of lumber, board measure. It was located by Mr. Helman's buyers on C. K. Shipman's farm in Gustavus, Ohio, and $100 bought it. The Helman Company dressed the stick down to 30 x 30 inches, 62 feet long and shipped it to New York, where it is now used as a dredge anchor.

Source: Reading Eagle, Feb. 2, 1908