cottonwood

See also: Cottonwood

English

the seeds of a cottonwood (Populus deltoides)

Narrowleaf cottonwoods, Populus angustifolia

Etymology

cotton +‎ wood

Noun

cottonwood (plural cottonwoods)

1. A tree from one of number of species of tree in the genus Populus (poplars), typically growing along watercourses, with fluffy catkins.
   • 1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 20:

     Between these canyons the river has a low but rather narrow flood plain, with cottonwood groves scattered here and there, and a chaparral of mesquite bearing beans and thorns.

   • 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:

     […] and through the middle of this forest, from wall to wall, ran a winding line of brilliant green which marked the course of cottonwoods and willows.

2. Populus sect. Aigeiros, a taxonomic section of the poplar genus
3. A cottonwood hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum, syn. Hibiscus tiliaceus), a flowering shrub or tree in the mallow family.
4. A tree of species Ceiba pentandra, native to the American tropics and west Africa; silk-cotton tree.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     There is no break in the trees. That is the wonder and the mystery of it. There where you see light-green rushes instead of dark-green undergrowth, there between the great cotton woods, that is my private gate into the unknown.

Derived terms

• balsam cottonwood (Populus balsamifera)
• black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa)
• coastal cottonwood, coast cottonwood (Talipariti tiliaceum)
• cottonwood borer (Plectrodera scalator)
• cottonwood hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum)
• cottonwood leaf beetle (Chrysomela scripta)
• cottonwood leaf-mining beetle (Zeugophora scutellaris)
• eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides)
• Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii)
• Great Plains cottonwood (Populus sargentii)
• green cottonwood (Talipariti tiliaceum)
• lanceleaf cottonwood (Populus × acuminata)
• mountain cottonwood (Populus angustifolia)
• narrowleaf cottonwood (Populus angustifolia)
• northern cottonwood (Bombax ceiba)
• plains cottonwood (Populus sargentii)
• river cottonwood (Populus heterophylla)
• swamp cottonwood (Populus heterophylla)
• willow cottonwood (Populus angustifolia)
• Wislizenus's cottonwood (Populus wislizenii)
• yellow cottonwood (Populus deltoides)

Translations

tree from Populus with fluffy catkins

• Apache:

  Western Apache: bitʼiis

• Cherokee: ᎠᏓ ᎬᏂᎯᏛ (ada gvnihidv)
• Cheyenne: xamaehoohtsêstse
• Dogrib: t'ooh
• Finnish: poppeli (fi)
• German: Pappel (de) f
• Gwich'in: t'oo
• Manx: pobbyl m
• Maori: tauhinu
• Navajo: tʼiis
• Okanagan: múlx
• Spanish: álamo (es) m
• Taos: túłoną
• Turkish: kavak (tr)

Hibiscus tiliaceus

• Hawaiian: hau
• Malay: baru (ms)

References

• cottonwood on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Populus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Populus sect. Aigeiros on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Talipariti tiliaceum on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• cottonwood at USDA Plants database
• “* cottonwood”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.