SWAMP COTTONWOOD; BLACK COTTONWOOD I Populus het crophylla, Linn.). 50 to 90 feet. Round-topr ed tree with slender branches and stout twigs. Buds small, resinous. Bark red-brown, in broad ridges, with loose plates. Wood brown, light, compact, "black poplar" used in the interior finish of houses and for small articles. Leaves broadly ovate, 4 to 7 inches long, with fine saw-toothed margin, white and downy as they unfold, dark green with pale linings when ma ture, on round, slim petioles; yellow or brown in autumn.
Flowers March, in crowded catkins, held erect until the flowers open; bracts fringed, stamens red; pistillate catkins few flowered, 1 to 2 inches long, finally drooping. Fruit 2-celled, thin-walled capsules, bell-shaped, z inch long; seed minute, dark red, in cottony float; wind sown in May. Dist.: ground, Connecticut to Louisiana along the rivers, Indiana to Arkansas and the Gulf.