| 1. Branch with sterile catkins. |
| 2. Sterile flower, back view, |
| 3. Sterile flower, front view. |
| 4. Branch with fertile catkins. |
| 5. Bract of fertile flower. |
| 6. Fertile flower, front view. |
| 7. Fruiting branch with mature leaves. |
| 8. Fruit. |
| 9. Fruit. |
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).
Following the eastern coast in wide belts from New York (Staten island and Long island) south to Georgia; west along the Gulf coast to western Louisiana, and northward along the Mississippi and Ohio basins to Arkansas, Indiana, and Illinois.
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.