Populus fremontii S. Watson ssp. fremontii   Salicaceae (Willow Family)                                            Native   Western Cottonwood              Fremont Cottonwood

                                        March Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Tree, 12-30 m. tall with broad open crown and whitish roughly-cracked bark; twigs stout, quite glabrous; lvs. alternate, deciduous, stipulate, quite glabrous, deltoid, 4-7 cm. long, 4-9 cm. wide, slightly cordate or +/- cuneate at the entire base, abruptly sharp-pointed at the apex, coarsely and irregularly serrate-dentate, bright green lustrous; petioles laterally flattened, 3-6 cm. long; catkins 4-5 cm. long; stamens 60 or more; ovary sessile, glabrous; style short; caps. 8-12 mm. long.

Habitat:  Moist places below 6500 ft.; several Plant Communities; cismontane and Mojave Desert to cent. Calif., Nev., Ariz., Catalina and San Nicholas Ids.  March-April.

Name:  Populus, the classical Latin name.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 772).            Fremontii, in honor of John Charles Fremont, 1813-1890, explorer in western United States.  (Bailey 43).

General:  Uncommon in the study area, several small trees are located in a draw just northerly of the burn area on the bench at Eastbluff.  Several more have been planted in Big Canyon and along the horse and bike path in Santa Ana Heights.  Photographed in the draw at Eastbluff.  (my comments).       In hard times, both man and his horses used the inner bark of cottonwoods and aspens for food.   Some Indians preferred it to other food because of its sweetness.  (Murphy 17).       The Cahuilla, Indians of the Colorado Desert, the San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountains, used cottonwood in several ways; one of the unusual was in making wooden mortars.  The trunk of a cottonwood tree was cut into two and one-half foot lengths.  Part of the center of the trunk was then removed to create a mortar in which soft foods such as mesquite could be ground.  Cottonwood also had a number of medicinal uses.  The leaves and bark were boiled into a poultice to relieve swelling caused by muscle strain.  Wetting a handkerchief in a solution made from the bark and leaves and then tying it around the head cured headaches.  (Bean & Saubel 106).        The Teton Dakota say that formerly the people peeled the young sprouts of P. sargentii and ate the inner bark because of its pleasant, sweet taste and nutritive value.  Young cottonwood branches and upper branches of older trees were provided as forage for their horses and were said to be as “good for them as oats.”  White trappers and travelers have recorded their observations as to the value of the cottonwood as forage.  Mystic properties were ascribed to cottonwood.  The Sacred Pole of the Omaha was made from a cottonwood.  This was an object, which seems to have had among that people a function somewhat similar to that of the Ark of the Covenant among ancient Hebrews.  Cottonwood bark was employed as a fuel for roasting the clays used in making paints for heraldic and symbolic painting of the skin.  A yellow dye was made from the leaf buds in early spring.  Feathers for pluming arrows were dyed a yellowish color by dipping in a decoction made by boiling the seed vessels of this tree.  (Gilmore 20).      Populus species have been known to cause hay fever and asthma.  (Fuller 381).        Steeping an ounce of the dried bark, one-fourth ounce of Licorice Root and a teaspoon of cloves in a fifth of brandy can make an excellent old-fashioned bitters.  After a month, the bitters have “matured” and can be sipped on for poor appetite, indigestion and feverishness.  Through no fault of the herbs, excess sipping can lead to undesirable side effects.  (Moore, Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West 132).      Laboratory-designed hybrids of the fast growing poplar tree have been found to act like 100-foot straws that suck contamination from soil and ground water and release it into the air in a safe form.  Tests have shown that the process, known as phytoremediation, is inexpensive and might work at least as well as high-tech soil roasting and ground water filtering, while keeping the site green.  Researchers at the University of Georgia, report in the October issue of Nature Biotechnology that they took a gene from a strain of bacterium than enables it to tolerate high levels of ionic mercury, a highly toxic version of the heavy metal, and inserted it into the genetic code of the yellow poplar.  The gene allows the poplar to convert mercury into less toxic form.  Maugh, Thomas H. II, “Hybrids of Poplars Found Able to Decontaminate Soil, Water.”  Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition, 1 October 1998. B2.       The larvae of the Lorquin’s Admiral butterfly, Limenitis lorquini, feed on cottonwood, willow aspen and some orchard trees.  (No author, sbnature, A Journal of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Spring 2004/Vol. 2 No. 1, 6-8.)              The Hopi Indians of Arizona considered the cottonwood to be a sacred tree and carved Kachina dolls from the roots.  They believed the rustle of the wind through the quaking leaves to be the gods speaking to people. (Strike 1994). (Stevens, Michelle L. “ETHNOECOLOGY OF SELECTED CALIFORNIA WETLAND PLANTS”  FREMONTIA, A Journal of the California Native Plant Society Vol. 32, No. 4 October 2004 pp. 7-15).        Poplars, known as heavy water users are helping to clean jet fuel out of the soil at the former Los Alamitos Naval Air Station, now known at the Joint Forces Training Base.  The cleanup method, an alternative to the more expensive pump-and- treat system or the digging up of the soil and removing it to a landfill, was developed about 12 years ago.  The process, called phytoremediation works well with plants that use a lot of water as this speeds up the cleansing process.  At the Joint Forces Training Base, Italian hybrid poplar trees have been used.  The cleansing process takes place as follows:  The trees roots release oxygen, sugars and alcohols that feed the bacteria in the soil that in turn break down the fuel; this is as much as 5 times faster than without the trees.  Any fuel that gets into the roots and into the trees is either contained in the tree or metabolized and released as oxygen or carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  One hundred sixty trees were planted at the Joint Forces Training Base and over a period of ten years they are estimated to save the military $900,000.  The process is only good to the depth of the roots and contamination below that level must be handled in other ways, in the case of poplars, the roots go down about 25 feet.  The process is slower than the more expensive alternatives. (Edwards, Monica, “TREES AT WORK” Orange County Register 4 May 2005. LOCAL: p.1).        About 30 species of wide distribution in the Northern Hemisphere.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 772).        Susceptible to mistletoe.  (Hickman, Ed. 990).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 990; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 772; Roberts 37.

Photo Ref:  Aug-Sept 88 #2,3; Feb-Mar 89 #7; Nov-Dec 89 #21; Aug 93-Mar 94 #19A; Mar 95 #8.

Identity: by John Johnson.

First Found:  August 1988.

Computer Ref: Plant Data 358.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 5/5/05.

                             August Photo                                                                        March Photo