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Populus sargentii
Populus sargentii
Plains cottonwood – Populus sargentii
A.K.A. : Populus deltoides ssp. monilifera
Pronunciation: pop’-you-lus sar-jen-tee-eye
Leaf: Triangular, glossy, with flat base, pointed tip. May have 2 or 3 glands near base of leaf at top of flat petiole which is 2 ½ to 4 inches long. Margins have large rounded to pointed teeth. 3 - 5 veins meet at leaf base.
Bud: Lateral buds: lowermost bud scale is centered directly over the leaf scar (typical of all species of Poplar). Buds are larger (over ½ inch), pointed, shiny, and can be green, yellow or gray. Stick out away from stem. May be gummy. Terminal bud present.
Leaf Scar: Crescent-shaped, 3 - 6 bundle scars. Very noticeable stipule scars (horizontal lines) on either side of the leaf scar.
Stem: Knobby (due to the enlarged nodes) and grayish-green.
Bark: Gray, thick ridges and deep furrows.
Pith: Brown, solid, 5 - sided.
Flower: Male and female flowers on separate trees. Flowers appear before leaves. Drooping catkins.
Fruit: Capsules split open to release small seeds that are on a mat of long silky hairs (cotton).
Habit: Large, open form. Several main branches. Colorado native to the plains and foothills.
Culture: High water needs.
The plains cottonwood is a subspecies of the eastern cottonwood (P. deltoides)
http://www.westernexplorers.us/PlainsCottonwood.pdf
Excerpt from Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide by Kelly Kindscher
"The Blackfeet scraped the bark of the cottonwood and brewed the scrapings to make a tea for women about to give birth (Hellson, 1974, p.61). They also made a bark tea for symptoms resembling heartburn or for general discomfort. In 1877 Valery Havard, the Assistant Surgeon and Botanist for the Seventh Calvary, reported from an area that is in present day Montanathat "whole groves of Cottonwood were seen with their trunks stripped by Indians, who use the inner layers of the bark as a mucilaginous and anti-scorbutic food" (Harvard, 1877, p 1682. The Lakota names for the cottonwood, "canya'hu" (peel off wood) and "wa'ga can" (take off wood), in reference to their use of the bark as feed for horses (Rogers, 1980, p. 57).
All of the Populus species contain varying amounts of salicin and populin, the precursors to aspirin (Moore, 1979, p. 133). The bark is the most effective part, but quite bitter, so a leaf tea was often used for reducing fever or inflammation. The bark tea was also used for diarrhea. Cottonwood buds were made into a slave by soaking them in olive or almond oil for a week, then adding a little melted beeswax as a thickener."
Bark
Bark
Leaf
Leaf
Seed Capsules
Seed Capsules
Native Range in Wyoming
Native Range in Wyoming
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