Cottonwood Shade in Pima Canyon

The cottonwood’s deep roots draw water from a mountain stream.

MichaelStephenWills

Looking back down Pima Canyon on a spring morning plenty of green under the unrelenting sun.

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A large Fremont’s Cottonwood Offers shade and protection along the Pima Canyon Trail.

In the shade, a grapevine, offers a vain promise of grapes.

The cottonwood’s deep roots draw water from a mountain stream.

Native Americans in the Western United States and Mexico used parts of Frémont’s cottonwood variously for a medicine, in basket weaving, for tool making, and for musical instruments. The inner bark of Frémont’s cottonwood contains vitamin C and was chewed as an antiscorbutic – treatment for vitamin C deficiency. The bark and leaves could be used to make poultices to reduce inflammation or to treat wounds.

The Pima people of southern Arizona and northern Mexico lived along Sonoran Desert watercourses and used twigs from the tree in the fine and intricate baskets they wove. The Cahuilla people of southern California used the tree’s wood for tool making, the Pueblo peoples for drums, and the Lower Colorado River Quechan people in ritual cremations. The Hopi of Northeastern Arizona carve the root of the cottonwood to create kachina dolls.

Reference: Wikipedia “Fremont’s Cottonwood.”

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills
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6 thoughts on “Cottonwood Shade in Pima Canyon”

  2. What a versatile little tree! And lovely photos, it does look very green in the valley. It’s a great shame that in the past humans set out to conquer the world and treat native folk around the globe so aggressively. There is so much we could have learnt and so much knowledge now lost. There are no Tasmanian full blood first nation people left. Most of that history and culture is lost, and I believe it is a tragic loss for all humans. We are less for it.

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