Cottonwood (Populous deltoides)

The cottonwood tree has a place in literature, particularly in the Westerns, and in ecology being water dependent and water demanding.  The trees are nearby if not directly in the neighborhood.

You will notice these trees at Lake Roland every June with the cottony snow on the ground.  The trees are tall and not giving up their leaves or branches for close examination.  There is a small group of cottonwoods at the church parking lot, north side of Church Lane in Cockeysville.  This is the leaf in the photo.  In July there were neither catkins or the snowy seeds.  Cottonwood is dioecious so these trees out York road may be male and have only the reddish catkins in late spring.

The petioles are long and flattened, allowing the leaf to fluttered in the slightest breeze ,a characteristic of the group.  The leaves, consistent with the name are triangular with a flat base.  There are a couple of small glands at the junction of the leaf and its stem.

typical triangular eastern cottonwood leaf

Addendum:  Someone raised the question of leaf scars.  They are said to be large and triangular  on a stour yellow-grey twig.   See the last photo.

transillumination of the cottonwood veins

leaf scar on cottonwood twig, somewhat triangular