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This painting of a cottonwood in bloom was commissioned by a very dear friend of mine who grew up in New Mexico. Growing up she recalls playing in and around a big old cottonwood where she lived. 

"Several of the parents in our neighborhood got together and built a treehouse in that old cottonwood for the kids to play in. We spent hours at that treehouse. In the spring the tree would blossom out causing the branches to droop to the ground, from the weight of cascading tatone pods, the size of peas. Those pods or tatones were like stinging missiles that we would throw at each other and even though they hurt like hell, would laugh in pure delight.”

People there called the pods “tatones" but no one knows the origin of the word. Maybe made up and just slang. Cottonwood trees are male and female. After the female trees bloom green seed pods are formed which were called “tatones”. These seed pods break open in the spring and disperse the fluffy white seeds we see blowing in the wind to cover the grass sometimes so thick it resembles snow.