KEY TO IMPORTANT WOODY PLANTS 1 1 9 



1/2 to nearly 8 inches long, many-flowered; each flower in 

 shallowly cup-shaped disk attached to deeply cleft, hairy- 

 fringed, often soon-falling flower scale; seed pods (capsules) 

 greenish, to ){ inch long, cone- or globe-shaped, splitting down 

 from top into 2 or 3 parts (valves); seeds many, tiny, silky - 

 or cottony-hairy -tuf ted ; fast-growing trees, stump- or root- 

 sprouting; moist sites along river valleys, or on cut- or burned- 

 over mountain areas. .quaking aspen and black cottonwood. 

 4. End buds to 3/ 8 inch long, only slightly resinous, reddish 

 brown, little (if any) larger than the often appressed and 

 incurved side buds; twigs with 5-lobed pith; pollen-pro- 

 ducing catkins to 2 inches long, each flower with 6-12 red, 

 maroon, or purple anthers; seed-producing catkins to 4 

 inches long in fruit, each flower tipped by 2 slender, 2-lobed 

 pollen-receiving organs (stigmas) ; flower scales 3- to 8-cleft ; 

 seed pods cone-shaped, thin-walled, splitting into 2 parts; 

 bark of young trees greenish to chalky white, with dark 

 scarlike patches; trees, often in almost pure stands, com- 

 monly 20-40 feet high, often much taller, widely distributed 

 at middle elevations, mountains of e. Oreg., e. Wash. 



quaking (or golden) aspen (Populus tremuloides). 

 4. End buds to nearly 1 inch long, very resinous (drops of 

 fragant reddish resin often on bud scales), orange brown, 

 often curved and a little larger than side buds; twigs with 

 5-sided pith (star-shaped when dry); pollen-producing 

 catkins to 3 inches long, each flower with 30-60 purplish 

 anthers; seed-producing catkins to nearly 8 inches long in 

 fruit ; each flower tipped by 3 broad, deeply lobed pollen- 

 receiving organs (stigmas) ; flower scales cleft into many, 

 narrow (almost threadlike) lobes; seed pods globe-shaped, 

 thick-walled, hairy, splitting into 3 parts; bark of young 

 trees smooth, greenish to yellow or gray; large trees (to 

 more than 100 feet high in river valleys w. of Cascades), 

 e. Oreg., e. Wash. 



black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa). 27 

 1. Catkins visible in fall and winter; pollen-producing catkins pre- 

 formed and out of the bud by late summer, tassellike, erect or 

 drooping, single or clustered; pollen- and seed-producing flowers 

 on same plant; twigs with small, compressed or triangular pith. 



hazel, alders, and birches. 

 5. Only pollen-producing flowers in catkins; hazelnuts sometimes 

 persistent, in bristly-hairy, brownish, fringe-beaked husks, sin- 

 gle or 2- to 4-clustered at twig tips; catkins hoary, tan or straw- 

 colored, 1-3 inches long, erect at first, soon spreading or droop- 

 ing, appearing almost stalkless but at tips of very short side 

 twigs; hazelnut-producing flower buds globe-shaped, plumper 

 than leafy -shoot buds, each with 2 bright red, short, threadlike 

 pollen-receiving organs (stigmas) visible at tip in early spring; 

 end buds lacking; leaf scars triangular to half-round, 2-ranked; 

 bundle traces 3 to several, scattered and indistinct; both buds 



27 The very similar balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera) has egg-shaped, hairless 

 seed pods that split into only 2 parts; it is introduced in Multnomah Co., Oreg., 

 otherwise not reported from Oregon or Washington. 



