A Common Garden at the Colorado State Nursery in Fort Collins, CO

A Common Garden at the Colorado State Nursery in Fort Collins, Colorado, established in 2005 to study evolution of phenology of riparian cottonwood and saltcedar. Plants were collected along a longitudinal gradient from Texas to Montana. Phenology is the seasonal timing of life history events including leaf opening, flowering, seed release, bud formation and leaf senescence. Monitoring of about 280 cottonwoods continues at this research site (Friedman et al. 2008, 2011).