Family:
Growth Form: Up to 90 feet tall; trunk diamter up to 2 feet; crown very irregular, with a few, large, upright branches.
Stems: The bark is usually gray or brown, smooth when young, becoming scaly ridged at maturity. The twigs are rather stout, smooth or hairy, reddish, leaf scars alternate 3-lobed, each with 3 bundle traces; pith 5-angled.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades ovate, rounded or bluntly pointed at the tip, heart-shaped at the base, up to 8 inches long, up to 6 inches broad, with rounded teeth along the edges, green on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, densely white-woolly when young, becoming essentially smooth at maturity; leafstalks to 4 inches long, smooth or sparsely hairy, not flattened.
Flower Arrangement:
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne on separate trees, the staminate crowded in thick catkins up to 4 inches long, the pistillate in slender catkins up to 6 inches long, both appearing before the leaves begin to unfold.
Petals:
Stamens: Borne on separate trees from the pistillate, crowded in think catkins up to 4 inches long, and appearing before the leaves begin to unfold.
Pistil: Borne on separate trees from the staminate, in slender catkins up to 6 inches long, and appearing before the leaves begin to unfold.
Fruits: Ovoid, reddish-brown capsules up to 1/2 inch long, grouped in elongated clusters, containing numerous seeds with cottony hairs attached.
Habitat: Swamps, low woods.
Range: Connecticut to southern Michigan, southwestward across southern Illinois to central Louisiana, east to northern Florida.
N 38 degrees 34.755 minutes
W 89 degrees 04.146 minutes
Elevation 475 feet