What color does eastern cottonwood turn in fall?

Eastern cottonwood turns a bright, clean yellow, sometimes deepening to gold before the leaves drop.

When does eastern cottonwood change color?

Around the middle of the local season. Along rivers in the Plains, cottonwoods are often the main fall color on the landscape.

Quaking aspen: Smaller, rounder leaf with fine teeth. Eastern cottonwood: Triangular leaf with a flat base and a long tapering tip.

In the lower 48, look for it in the Great Plains, the Midwest, the Rockies, and the Southwest.

Leaf guide › Aspens & poplars

Populus angustifolia

The cottonwood of Rocky Mountain streams, lighting up creeks and valleys in gold.

Long, narrow, lance-shaped leaf with fine teeth, more like a willow than a typical cottonwood.
A tall tree with a single trunk, unlike most willows.
Grows along streams and rivers in mountain valleys.
Leaves turn bright yellow in fall.

Look for it along streams and rivers in the mountain valleys of the Rockies, from Montana and Wyoming south through Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.

Narrowleaf cottonwood is one of the main trees in the fall color at these destinations. Dates are the typical peak.

Colorado: Kenosha Pass (Sep 24), Breckenridge (Sep 25), Crested Butte (Sep 28), Telluride (Sep 30), Vail (Sep 30), Aspen (Oct 1), Estes Park (Oct 1), Steamboat Springs (Oct 4)

Montana: Bozeman (Oct 4)

New Mexico: Taos (Oct 7), Santa Fe (Oct 7)

Wyoming: Jackson Hole (Oct 2)

Similar narrow leaves, but most mountain willows grow as shrubby thickets, not tall single-trunked trees.

Narrowleaf cottonwood is the cottonwood of the mountains. Eastern and Plains cottonwoods have broad, triangular leaves.

Narrowleaf cottonwood turns bright yellow.

Along streams and rivers in the mountain valleys of the Rocky Mountains.

Both have narrow leaves, but narrowleaf cottonwood grows into a tall tree with a single trunk, while most mountain willows are shrubs.

See where the color is peaking today.