Black Cottonwood

Black Cottonwoods are used for both timber and ornamentation. In the wild they usually grow in groups and gain heights of 150ft. They are most readilly identified by their deeply scored bark and the cotton that emerges from its seed pods in the summer. Sometimes enough of the cotton takes fight at the sime time that the ground looks like it has been dusted with fresh snow. The bark of this particular tree gets so hard that it can cause sparks when cut with a chainsaw.