Looks like a seedling poplar/cottonwood (_Populus_)

Monique Reed

Ron Hardin wrote:
I've noticed this thing, a woody weed, or perhaps shrub, or tree,
that grows in drainage ditches.

http://home.att.net/~rhhardin5/w45.jpg

It's perhaps the ugliest tree going, but you've got to admire its
persistence. Occasionally there's a community of them but I notice
them most alone in places you expect weeds.

What is it?