Eastern Cottonwood and Hybrid Poplar

To many people in the South, the word “poplar” means yellow poplar, tulip poplar, or tulip tree. However, worldwide, “poplar” is understood to be a species of Populus, such as eastern cottonwood, which is found in Mississippi, or a hybrid between two Populus species. The genus name Populus was derived from a Roman expression, arbor populi, which means “the people’s tree,” because poplars were frequently planted along roadsides (Dickmann and Stuart 1983).