Cottonwood grove

Poplar trees passing from maturity to old age

Grove of cottonwoods at a ranch entrance
in the Nebraska Sandhills, about 1957

Note: As you read this, you must remember that in the Nebraska Sandhills, there are no natural forests. The Sandhills are one of the great prairies of North America.

The grove of cottonwood (Populus deltoides) trees pictured above was the first thing you saw at the Sandhill ranch where I grew up. They towered above the west side of our ranch road, from our mailbox to the first auto-gate.

When my brother and I walked home from school, I liked to crawl under the fence at the mailbox and walk through these trees. I had never walked through a real forest, but I imagined that a forest would be something like this grove -- a quiet place shaded by tall, majestic trees. This mighty stand of cottonwoods seemed much more like a forest than the shelter-belts around our house. In the shelter-belts, the trees were short and bushy, and they grew in rows.

On windy days, I looked up and saw the tops of the trees moving, but the wind was not as strong at ground level inside the grove as it was outside it. Even though the trees were widely spaced, they seemed to slow the wind. My father knew this fact, as well. On bitter winter days, he sometimes fed the cattle their hay under these trees.¹

I brought my children to visit my childhood home in 1999. It had been about 25 years since my parents moved their ranching operation to Missouri, and I left Nebraska. I was shocked to see that many of the trees in the cottonwood "forest" of my childhood were dead or dying. I suppose the grove was planted by homesteaders after they began settling in Duff Valley in the 1880s. A cottonwood rarely lives more than a century. I knew that, of course, but I still imagined that my cottonwoods would live forever.

The same grove of cottonwoods, roughly 40 years later

Related:
Cottonwood trees of my childhood


¹The following paragraph from an Australian farm forestry page describes the same phenomenon:

In the case of scattered trees, the strongest winds tend to flow evenly over the top of the canopies, leaving the wind speeds at ground level much lower over the whole area. Measurements taken amongst widely spaced trees spread across grazing land indicate that reductions in wind speed of 40% over the whole paddock are possible with just 17 large remnant eucalypt trees per hectare, or about 200 young pruned timber trees per hectare. The larger the trees or the greater the stocking rate, the slower the wind speed will be. Such areas may be valuable as stock havens for ‘off-shears’ sheep or developed as special lambing or calving areas. (Source: "Trees for Wind Shelter")

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.

The Popular Poplar Tree

A tree-climbing poem

The upper branches of a cottonwood (poplar) tree -- probably

a plains cottonwood, as this photo was taken in Colorado

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonhurd/ / CC BY 2.0

How would it would feel to climb high in a poplar tree, with gusts of wind swaying the branches? Oh, my, I am definitely too old for that! It gives me a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach to think about it.

The Popular Poplar Tree

When the great wind sets things whirling
And rattles the window panes,
And blows the dust in giants
and dragons tossing their manes;
When the willows have waves like water,
And children are shouting with glee;
When the pines are alive and the larches,---
Then hurrah for you and me,
In the tip o' the top' o the top o' the tip of
the popular poplar tree!

Don't talk about Jack and the Beanstalk---
He did not climb half so high!
And Alice in all her travels
Was never so near the sky!
Only the swallow, a-skimming
The storm-cloud over the lea,
Knows how it feels to be flying---
When the gusts come strong and free---
In the tip o' the top' o the top o' the tip of
the popular poplar tree!

---Blanch Willis Howard

Maybe the poet's poplar was popular because it was so easy to climb. Or maybe she just enjoyed the sound of the similar words.

I came across this little poem in Arbor Day Leaves: A Complete Programme for Arbor Day Observance, Including Readings, Recitations, Music & General Information. This booklet was compiled by N. H. Egleston of the USDA Forest Service and published in 1893 by American Book Company of New York.

What Trees Do Beavers Prefer?

Popular trees on the beaver's menu

The passage about Teddy Roosevelt's "beavered-down" trees aroused my curiosity about beavers. I've read several dozen webpages this evening, trying to learn exactly what trees they prefer.

I've read about beavers chewing down white cedars and cherry trees in Washington D.C., elm, cottonwood, hackberry and maple in Tennessee, and willow, maple, birch, aspen, cottonwood, beech, poplar, and alder trees in New Hampshire. In Colorado, willow, aspen and cottonwood are mentioned again.

On several sites, I read that beavers prefer to cut down soft-wooded trees which enables harder-wooded species like oaks and hickories to get more sunshine and flourish. However, Bob Arnebeck provides images of oak trees taken down by beavers, so I wonder if that theory holds true.

American Wildlife and Plants by Martin, Zim, and Nelson (full citation at bottom of the page) cites the following trees as used by beaver in various parts of the U.S.:  poplar (cottonwoods and aspens), willow, birch, hazelnut, serviceberry, maple, alder, ash, sweetgum, pine, dogwood, oak, sycamore, redcedar, and Douglasfir.

According to Martin, et al, poplar trees are especially important to the beaver's diet in the Northeast U.S. and in the West, and sweetgum makes up a significant portion of their diet in the Southeast.

I can testify from personal knowledge and observation that beavers in the Nebraska Sandhills thrive in little streams with willows on the banks.

Why do beavers cut down trees? They eat the bark and wood, as well as using the branches in their dams and lodges.

Photo of the "beavered-down" tree courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Teddy Roosevelt as Logger

"Beavering down" trees

In Teddy Roosevelt's autobiography, he writes with great good humor about his various life adventures. The following quotation is from his tale of building a house from cottonwood logs on his North Dakota ranch:

The Elkhorn ranch house was built mainly by Sewall and Dow, who, like most men from the Maine woods, were mighty with the ax. I could chop fairly well for an amateur, but I could not do one-third the work they could. One day when we were cutting down the cottonwood trees, to begin our building operations, I heard some one ask Dow what the total cut had been, and Dow not realizing that I was within hearing, answered: "Well, Bill cut down fifty-three, I cut forty-nine, and the boss he beavered down seventeen." Those who have seen the stump of a tree which has been gnawed down by a beaver will understand the exact force of the comparison.
(Source)

The term, "beavered down," has now entered my vocabulary. I can relate. I've taken the ax and beavered down a few saplings myself, trying to get them out of the hedge where they've been let go too long. There's nothing like chopping down a tree to give you great respect for strength and stamina of the pioneers.

And as for the beavers -- well, I simply can't imagine chewing down a tree! I have a lot of respect for them too!

Related: Flickr photo set from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in southwestern North Dakota

America's Largest Cottonwood Down in a Storm

Champion poplar tree split in two

Nebraska.statepaper.com is reporting that America's largest cottonwood tree has fallen, split in half by either lightning or wind in a storm. According to the article, the tree was 36.75 feet in circumference, 85 feet high and 107 feet in crown spread. It grew near Seward, Nebraska.

The photograph that accompanies the article shows two massive trunks on the tree. The man in the picture is tiny in comparison to the tree.

I wrote recently about the big cottonwood (Populus deltoides) trees on my Nebraska country school playground, half a century ago. I remember one with particular affection because several children could hide together behind it in "Hide and Seek."

This fallen champion cottonwood was so big that our entire schoolhouse could have been hidden behind it! Actually, I am not joking. Our little schoolhouse was only 10 or 12 feet wide.

Related site: Nebraska Champion Tree Register

Technorati tags: Populus deltoides, champion trees

Cottonwood Trees of My Childhood

Friendly giants in the schoolyard

When I was a child, growing up in the ranch country of northern Nebraska, we lived in a low-lying valley with two creeks and big sandy hills all around us. I attended a little one-room country school, about two miles from my house.

I can't imagine my childhood in that school without the big cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) that grew on the schoolyard. The trees were very much a part of our playground experience. Most importantly, without the cottonwood trees, we'd have had no place to hide when we played "Hide and Seek."

I remember affectionately one very large cottonwood that grew in the ditch just off the school property. In truth, we weren't supposed to venture off the grounds, but the teacher never said anything about us hiding behind that tree. Its trunk was so large that several of us could hide there together -- that's why we liked it so much.

Behind the barn (a relic of the time that children rode horses to school), the big boys had nailed some boards to two cottonwoods that grew close together. If you were brave and naughty (as the big boys were,) you could climb those boards like a ladder, get on the barn roof, and slide down on the other side.

In the fall, we played in the leaves, and in the spring, we enjoyed the beaded strings of "cotton" and the red blossoms. And of course, we all knew how to fold a cottonwood leaf and make a whistle.

I remember how outraged we all were when the school board (our fathers!) cut down one of the big old trees one day. They said it was threatening to fall on the schoolhouse.

A large cottonwood that grows near Little River in Hopkinsville, KY

As I've been writing this, I've realized that the cottonwoods grew only around the edges of the playground because the playground was mowed each year before school started.

I don't know if the trees sprang up from seed originally, or if they had been planted. They were mature trees in the 1950s and 1960s when I was a child.

In 2000, when I visited the little, vacant schoolhouse, many of the big trees were dead, standing like whitened skeletons around the playground. Cottonwoods live about a century, and their time was complete.

Native trees for dry, steep sites

Native trees that will grow on dry hillsides

These native trees will tolerate sites with excessive drainage -- hillsides, banks, or slopes, and extremely coarse soils. They will also tolerate droughty conditions, though most of them would like to have a little water sometimes. The common name of each tree is linked to its page in the USDA Plants Database.

Betula populifolia -- Gray birch (tolerates wet to dry conditions)
Carya tomentosa -- Mockernut hickory (prefers some moisture, tolerates dry)
Cotinus americanus -- American smoketree (prefers moist, tolerates dry)
Crataegus crusgali -- Cockspur hawthorn (prefers moist, tolerates dry)
Crataegus mollis -- Downy hawthorn (prefers moist, tolerates dry)
Crataegus nitida -- Glossy hawthorn (prefers moist, tolerates dry)
Crataegus phaenopyrum -- Washington hawthorn (prefers moist, tolerates dry)
Crataegus punctata -- Frosted (or dotted) hawthorn (prefers moist, tolerates dry)
Fraxinus quadrangulata -- Blue ash (tolerates wet to dry conditions)
Juniperus virginiana -- Eastern redcedar (tolerates wet to dry conditions)
Liridendron tulipifera -- Tuliptree or yellow poplar (prefers some moisture, tolerates dry)
Maclura pomifera -- Osage orange or hedgeapple (prefers moist, tolerates dry)
Pinus banksiana -- Jack pine (prefers some moisture, tolerates dry)
Pinus ponderosa -- Ponderosa pine (average to dry conditions)
Pinus rigida -- Pitch pine (average to dry conditions)
Populus deltoides -- Cottonwood or eastern poplar (tolerates wet to dry)
Prunus americana -- American wild plum (prefers some moisture, tolerates dry)
Prunus pennsylvanica -- Pin cherry (tolerates wet to dry)
Quercus marilandica -- Blackjack oak (dry)
Quercus muhlenbergi -- Chinkapin oak (dry)
Quercus velutina -- Black oak (prefers some moisture, tolerates dry)
Rhus species -- Various sumacs (prefer some moisture, tolerate dry)
Robinia pseudoacacia -- Black locust (prefers some moisture, tolerates dry)
Sassafras albidum -- Sassafras (tolerates wet to dry)

Four trees to avoid

Invasive trees threaten urban forests and native woodlands.

In today's Leaf Chronicle, Jeremy Meyer, city forester of Clarksville, TN, writes about invasive trees that are pushing out native species.

Meyer cites four trees as dangerously invasive in the Clarksville, TN, area. (This area includes my home, Christian County, KY, just across the state line). Meyer points out that these trees have brittle wood and are highly susceptible to weather damage, in addition to being invasive.

• Bradford Pear -- Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford'
• Empress Tree -- Paulownia tomentosa
• Tree of Heaven -- Ailanthus altissima
• White Poplar and Lombardy Poplar -- Populus alba and Populus nigra

I was alarmed at Meyer's statement that he has seen Bradford Pear establishing itself in woodlands along Interstate 24. It would be a great loss if even one native oak, hickory, ash, maple, etc., is choked out by a Bradford Pear.

I have previously said that you should be aware of a high likelihood of problems and early death with Bradford Pears, but plant it if you must. I hereby retract that statement and urge you to avoid the tree.

This is part one in a series by Meyer that will list a dozen invasive trees. I am sure that the mimosa tree will be featured in one of the future columns. It is a weed tree in this area. It's extremely prolific, and it's hard to kill, once established. Its beauty does not make up for the problems it causes. I have one in my yard, so I know what I'm talking about.

At right: Bradford pear in bloom. Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/minidriver/ / CC BY 2.0

Three Fast Growing Trees with Problems

Think twice before planting these trees!

As America gears up for the spring planting season, stores and nurseries across the nation will stock millions of trees. Some of them will be labeled, "Fast growing," and those are words that bring joy to the hearts of tree-planters. Be careful! Here are three fast-growing trees that you may regret planting.

1. Bradford Pear/Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford'

Bradford Pear image by Britt Slattery,
US Fish and Wildlife Service.

This tree is beautiful in three seasons --  spring, summer, and fall. It has abundant white blossoms early in spring, and its shiny green foliage turns red in autumn.

In winter, the Bradford Pear is not so attractive because its broken parts are no longer hidden by its leaves. And this tree does typically have a lot of broken parts. The dense branching, narrow branch crotches and weak wood cause it to break in wind, snow, ice -- and even heavy rain!

I have personally seen dozens of Bradford Pears severely damaged by weather events. Often the whole tree splits apart and an entire quarter or half of the tree tears away and falls to the ground.

If the tree lasts more than ten years without a disfiguring loss of branches or a partially dead crown, count yourself lucky. Bradford pears are very short-lived (30 years, max.)

2. Mimosa Tree/Albizia julibrissin

Wikimedia image by Simon Garbutt (SiGarb)

Mimosa trees (also called silk trees) have fragrant pink blossoms in summer, and their lacy foliage and multi-stemmed growth has a tropical look. It is a very fast-growing tree (3 feet or more per year.)

Mimosas grow all over the southeastern United States, where they have naturalized after being introduced as an ornamental in 1745. They are an invasive species; that is, they reproduce so freely and rapidly in the wild that they displace native species. That alone is good reason not to plant them. Mimosa seedlings and suckers will invade any part of your yard that's not regularly mowed and any flower bed that's not frequently weeded. They will also invade your neighbor's yard and flower beds!

 Besides being extremely invasive, the mimosa is a problem tree because of its weak, brittle wood which often breaks in storms.  It is vulnerable to a number of insects, and it is very short lived (15 to 20 years.)

3. Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra)

Lombardy poplars grow very fast indeed, and their narrow columnar shape makes them desirable for tight spaces. However, they are weak-wooded and very short-lived due to their susceptibility to disease. They send up suckers from their roots in a hundred-foot circle or more. Their rooting system includes extensive surface roots which can make mowing difficult.

Even the "hybrid poplars" that are touted to have a longer lifespan will die young. We planted ten hybrid poplars about 15 years ago, and three have already died. In retrospect, we regret planting them, even though they served their purpose effectively for a few years as a screen from the road.

An interesting history of the Lombardy poplar (pdf) 

Flikr image by wallygrom