back Home

Life Along a
Prairie River

Exploring the ecology of the wide and sandy rivers of the Great Plains

As one of the biggest eastern hardwoods, the eastern cottonwood can grow to up to 30 m with a massive truck that can be over 1 m in diameter. This member of the willow family is one of the fastest growing trees native to North America with an average of 1.5 m growth in one year. When trees are several years old, they can produce flowers. Male and female flowers are produced on separate trees. The flower cluster of both male and female flowers are called catkins. Catkins are not showy and the flowers have extremely small or no petals. The flowers do not attract pollinators, but are instead wind pollinated. Seeds are produced by trees with female flowers; male flowers release the pollen. The cottonwood is named for its cottony seeds that are wind dispersed in early summer. Seeds may be carried 100s of feet by wind or may fall in the water and be carried even farther from the parent tree before being deposited on land.

The eastern cottonwood grows across North America including Canada and Mexico, except in the far western U.S. states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Idaho. In Oklahoma you can find them growing along any waterway or body of water or in wet soils of valleys.

back to species list