Photo Walk Around the World: North America Southwest - Baja poplar

mountain cottonwood, Baja poplar, guerigo

Populus brandegeei  (Populus monticola)

The Baja poplar is a fast-growing, hardwood, white poplar with broad leaves and medium water use. It is known to grow in riparian habitats where it is most frost and heat tolerant (when adequate water is supplied). As the leaves are shed after every growing season, this tree is considered deciduous. It is also dioecious, meaning that each individual specimen has either male or female flowers.  When pollinated, the female flowers produce fruits with the characteristic cotton-like fiber that inspire the common name “cottonwood”. These fibers can blow up to five miles after they are shed, making this adaptation a great way for the female trees to disperse their seeds and further the spread of their future offspring.

<--- Return to: American agave

---> Proceed to: Laboratory of Tree Ring Research

 by walking south to Lowell Street and then east to the Bannister Building.