The fairly long leaf has a straight or heart-shaped base, large rounded teeth along the edges, and a pointy tip. Black Cottonwood Rafael Medina / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ...

Unless your tree is young and simply stretching up to get more sun, branches that are growing straight up are not normal. As Allen Tate explained, it is an indication that you've over-pruned the tree.

The eastern cottonwood tree (eastern poplar or populus deltoides) can grow from 70-100 feet tall, according to Michigan's Department of Natural Resources, and they prefer to grow in wetlands and ...

The White Bear Lake tree is not the biggest cottonwood tree in Minnesota. The largest one on record is over 32 feet in circumference in Chippewa County. This one is roughly 24 feet all the way around.