Eastern Cottonwood

• Triangular (deltoid) leaves with coarse, rounded teeth
• Flattened leaf stems make leaves flutter in any breeze
• Deeply furrowed gray bark on massive trunks
• Female trees release drifting cotton in early summer

Native range

Native along rivers, streams, and floodplains throughout the Great Plains. Named the Kansas state tree in 1937 — for a homesteader crossing open prairie it was often the only large tree in sight, and a reliable sign of water.

Soil

Deep, moist bottomland soil is its natural home, though it survives on far drier ground than it prefers. Untroubled by alkaline clay.

Sunlight

Full sun

Drought & heat

Moderate drought tolerance, high heat tolerance.

The official state tree of Kansas since 1937. Belongs along creeks, ponds, and big open lawns — its roots hunt water and its limbs shed in storms.

Wide, shallow, and strongly water-seeking. Cottonwood roots are a well-documented hazard to sewer laterals, septic fields, and shallow foundations. Give a new one at least 50 feet of clearance from anything buried.

Brittle wood on an enormous frame. Mature cottonwoods routinely shed limbs the size of small trees in Kansas thunderstorm winds, and those failures are dangerous mostly because of sheer scale.

Overall storm resistance: Poor. Assessing damage after a storm

• Cytospora canker

  Serious

  Sunken, discolored patches on limbs and trunk that girdle and kill branches, typically following drought stress. Prune out cankered limbs in dry weather and keep the tree watered.

• Cottonwood borer

  Manageable

  A large black-and-white beetle whose larvae tunnel the lower trunk and root collar, leaving coarse sawdust at the base. Vigorous trees tolerate them; stressed ones do not.

• Cotton litter

  Cosmetic

  Female trees release drifting seed cotton for a couple of weeks in early summer. It clogs screens and air conditioner coils but harms nothing. Male cultivars avoid it entirely.

Seeing something not listed here? Work from the symptom instead

Best windowDormant season — November through February

Inspect large trees annually for deadwood and cracked limbs and clear failures before storm season. Cottonwood compartmentalizes decay poorly, so a series of small cuts made early is far better than one large cut made late.

Magnificent along a creek, pond, or big open lawn; a genuine liability crowding a house. Keep it well away from structures, drives, and buried lines.

• A hollow or extensive decay column in the trunk above a house, drive, or gathering area
• Repeated large-limb failures over a target
• Significant crown dieback in the top third, which usually signals root or trunk decay below

Removal is a judgment call about risk, not a formula. A tree with one of these conditions over open lawn is a very different situation from the same tree over a driveway — and that judgment needs someone on site.