photo #5046576

The Rio Grande cottonwood is a type of poplar tree unique to the floodplain of the Rio Grande, one of North America’s longest rivers and a vital water source to the arid regions of the south-western United States and northern Mexico. Every year, the cottonwood tree produces clouds of tiny seeds encased in cotton-like fluff that float far in the breeze to be washed into new habitats by seasonal floodwater. Susanna Rita Gilbert (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 48,913) spotted these tiny cloudlets of Cirrocumulus over Los Lunas, New Mexico, US doing much the same. The tiny clumps of the high cloud look small because they are so far away. Some of them are lined up in the form known as undulatus. Others have bumpy tops (Cirrocumulus castellanus) or patterns of holes (Cirrocumulus lacunosus). At the end of the summer, the Rio Grande cottonwood’s fluttering heart-shaped leaves turn a deep sunset gold. Rather like the clouds at the end of the day.