DIVISION:

Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons)

The picture above is one of the several Plains Cottonwood trees in our yard. Last year while we were studying the Westward Expansion, I found an interesting article about Cottonwood Trees. I didn’t know that they can live 100 years. I”m sure the ones in our yard are old because they were certainly mature trees when we moved here way back when I was in 2nd grade. Here is some information I found awhile back regarding Cottonwood Trees and the Westward Expansion:

“When the pioneers crossed the Great Plains on the Santa Fe or the Oregon Trail, they often went for a long time without seeing any trees. The prairie was frequently seen as a very foreign and hostile environment to people from the Ohio valley, the Appalachian mountains or New England since they were used to forested surroundings. No trees meant no wood for cooking. Dried bison dung was used for cooking fuel instead! No trees also meant no shade, which can be very precious on a hot day in summer. This and other factors led one early explorer to misname the area as the “Great American Desert”. There is a tree that is well-adapted to life on the prairie, however. You can recognize it from afar during the growing season by the shiny leaves that shimmer and shake in the wind. The pioneers were always glad to spot one of these trees in the distance, since it offered the possibility of wood and shade. It also represented the chance of finding water, since this species likes to keep its feet wet, so to speak. That species is the cottonwood tree.” – click here to read entire article.

In an effort to try to get my Project 365 pictures caught up, I’m going to devote an ENTIRE week to the study of the Cottonwood Trees which grou in our yard (LOL) and cause us all kinds of problems (KA CHOO.. sniffle/sniffle, SNEEZE!). Hope you don’t mind. You might also notice that the P365 #’s and the sequence of the story are going in contratry directions. I did that because I’m going to upload them all at one time and you’ll want to read the story in order, but the #’s are ascending chronologicaly. Ok.. so I tend to make things too complicated and probably no one would have even noticed if I hadn’t said anything so on to the next post already. (LOL).