Poplar & Cottonwood....What's the Real Difference?

[NordicSplitter]

Been reading a lot of posts about Poplar on this site and it seems to me that a lot of folks inter-change Poplar for Cottonwood. On most of the BTU charts there is a difference in many categories. For those who have used both....What is the difference? Are they cousins of the same species?(Silver Maple & Sugar Maple) Thoughts welcomed....

 

[tigeroak]

I have split both and burned both. I will take poplar any day over cottonwood. I am a person that with it comes in the yard it is split and stacked then same day or close to that. I split everything by hand so Poplar is a dream to split while cottonwood wedge goes in and water comes out. Burns, cottonwood burns way to fast for me. I like poplar as you can handle it better in the stove as it burns. So UNLES I am about out of wood I will get cottonwood other than that I walk right by it. I am 5 years ahead so I will run from cottonwood to get poplar. I will run from poplar to get ANY maple. Love soft or hard maple.

 

[NordicSplitter]

I have split both and burned both. I will take poplar any day over cottonwood. I am a person that with it comes in the yard it is split and stacked then same day or close to that. I split everything by hand so Poplar is a dream to split while cottonwood wedge goes in and water comes out. Burns, cottonwood burns way to fast for me. I like poplar as you can handle it better in the stove as it burns. So UNLES I am about out of wood I will get cottonwood other than that I walk right by it. I am 5 years ahead so I will run from cottonwood to get poplar. I will run from poplar to get ANY maple. Love soft or hard maple.

Just got about 11 18' logs of Poplar dropped off. Looking forward to see how it splits.

 

[tigeroak]

They should split easy, all that I just split about 30 days ago split easy even ones with knots. The y's , if you got any turn upside down and split, they will split fairly easy too. I split everything by hand and been that way for at least 40 years now.

 

[Toomb]

I have split both and burned both. I will take poplar any day over cottonwood. I am a person that with it comes in the yard it is split and stacked then same day or close to that. I split everything by hand so Poplar is a dream to split while cottonwood wedge goes in and water comes out. Burns, cottonwood burns way to fast for me. I like poplar as you can handle it better in the stove as it burns. So UNLES I am about out of wood I will get cottonwood other than that I walk right by it. I am 5 years ahead so I will run from cottonwood to get poplar. I will run from poplar to get ANY maple. Love soft or hard maple.

This pretty much sums up my feelings exactly......

 

[Rebelduckman]

Just got about 11 18' logs of Poplar dropped off. Looking forward to see how it splits.

Like butter!

 

[Woody Stover]

Been reading a lot of posts about Poplar on this site

Tulip "Poplar" has fair BTU compared to the true Poplar (Aspen) they have in the north and northeast, which is closer to Cottonwood. Not sure which one you have access to...

 

[Applesister]

Populus is the Genus name for the common name Poplar. Its a giant iceberg, and lumping them together under a generic heading is the little tip that sits above the botanically vast ocean.
It is an extremely complex and hard to follow genetically altered tangle of names and species and subvarieties and cultivars and catagories but it all gets oversimplified for the sake of its generally low BTU value in the firewood industry.
The paper industry however is a whole nuther story. Lol.
Here is a start:
White poplar- Populus alba
European Aspen - Populus tremula
American Aspen -Populus tremuloides
Eastern cottonwood - populus deltoides
So on and so forth....

 

[jackatc1]

Burning Poplar right now. Start 830 pm on a hot bed of coals.
Temp. 400 add 3 medium splits temp jumps to 600 for two hours.
Drops to 400 and a hot bed of coals in 1hr.
Temp one room from summit insert 77 degrees.
Outside temp 36 degrees.
Going to bed now with the bedroom door shut.

 

[kennyp2339]

Inter breed them and you will have some popular cotton wood

 

[BenTN]

Cottonwood is a poplar. Tulip poplar, just referred to as poplar here in the south is actually not a poplar at all and is in the magnolia family. Tulip is great in campfires, burns fast and bright.

 

[Wood Duck]

I rank tulip Poplar as a pretty decent firewood, easy to split, and it often occurs as large, straight, trees with branches only near the top. As some have pointed out above, it isn't really a poplar, but is called Tulip Poplar, Yellow Poplar, or Tulip Tree, which is a good name in my opinion.

Where I live, and in nearby western NY, there are a couple of trees in the genus Populus that some people call poplar, but most call Aspen. These are Bigtooth Aspen and Quaking Aspen. These woods are light, but easy to split and quick to season. I don't mind processing them, but because of the light weight I generally avoid them.

Cottonwood is another tree in the genus Populus, so it is closely related to Aspens. I haven't cut much cottonwood, because they are not common where I live, but it seems stringier than aspen, harder to split, and no more dense.

 

[sepulvd]

I feel like cottonwood splits super easy. I split with a fiskars

 

[Longstreet]

Cottonwood is a poplar. Tulip poplar, just referred to as poplar here in the south is actually not a poplar at all and is in the magnolia family. Tulip is great in campfires, burns fast and bright.

Yup. Just look at the flowers and notice the similarities. I have no idea why it is called a Tulip poplar; it's not in either the tulip or the poplar family.

It is also one of my favorite trees - beautiful flowers and one of the fastest and tallest growing trees on the east coast.

 

[Longstreet]

I think some people aren't giving true poplars a fair look. Poplars can probably one of the most important firewood species in the entire world, if managed right.

From everything I've read, if you had a small woodlot, compared to required annual wood need, a stand of pure poplar/aspen would outperform pretty much everything else. That's because poplar responds to coppicing well and grows extremely quickly. You basically cut entire areas of the woodlot every few years and not worry about splitting or replanting/regeneration.

Doesn't really make sense if you have more than enough land. But if your goal is to maximize BTUs per sq ft, poplar is the way to go.