what kind of tree is this??

[mound]

Was at a park this weekend on Oneida Lake in Central NY and saw these trees. 

The bottom half looks like, well, I'm not sure exactly, I'd guess maybe Ash, but the main trunk looks nothing like the "white paper Birch" bark you'd see on a birch tree. But about halfway up, it seems to morph into what looks like a paper birch tree - the bark is that flakey white paper just like a birch tree.

The leaves seem to be either half of them "white" and half of them a dark green, or maybe each leaf is white on one side and dark green on the other.. couldn't quite tell.. There were 4-5 such trees all next to each other.

[rectangle618]

Was at a park this weekend on Oneida Lake in Central NY and saw these trees... 

My vote is for cottonwood or something else from the genus Populus. The bark is right and they often grow close to water. Definitely not a birch.

[mound]

My vote is for cottonwood or something else from the genus Populus.  The bark is right and they often grow close to water.  Definitely not a birch.

interesting.. so the bark completely changing from thick/bumpy/brown to white/flakey/smooth halfway up the tree is expected on trees like that?

[rectangle618]

interesting.. so the bark completely changing from thick/bumpy/brown to white/flakey/smooth halfway up the tree is expected on trees like that?

USDA page on the Eastern Cottonwood says: "The bark of younger trees is rather smooth and greenish-gray. On older trunks it becomes ashy-gray and is roughened by long, deep, longitudinal and interconnecting furrows."

[jteneyck]

My vote is the cottonwood family, too.  We have a lot of them out here in WNY and they get very large.  

John

[MichaelMouse]

My vote is the cottonwood family, too.  We have a lot of them out here in WNY and they get very large.  

John

"Popple" here.  Saves looking up species when members of the the genus mostly look alike.  

The name "poplar" has been appropriated by that member of the magnolia family Tulipifera liriodendron.

[Stwood_]

I'd say cottonwood also. Older trees here have the desired heavy/deep, lower bark for carving.

[jppierson]

Eastern Cottonwood
Populus deltoides ssp. deltoides

I learned something today. I live in the Adirondacks and just thought they were old birch trees. So had to look it up. Got my info from
https://wildadirondacks.org/adirondack-tree-list.html and honed in on cottonwood
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_deltoides The description states, "The bark is silvery-white, smooth or lightly fissured when young, becoming dark gray and deeply fissured on old trees."

[castguy2003]

If it's a cottonwood you will know in early summer when they spew thousands of seeds. Around us we have them and the ground gets white like snow. Not a very strong wood.

[mound]

I have a neighbor with a Cottonwood tree (I only assume it is, due to all the white fluffy "cotton" that's all over the neighboring yards every spring like snow. I walked by this tree yesterday, and it doesn't have that split personality thing happening with the trunk like in my pics - it looks the same all the way up and down.  Maybe due to age?