SALICACEAE 
White Poplar 
Populus alba L,. 
HABIT.—A large tree 60-80 feet high, with a trunk diameter 
of 2-4 feet, forming a large, spreading, rounded or irregular 
crown of large, crooked branches and sparse, stout branchlets. 
LEAVES.—Alternate, simple, 2-4 inches long and almost as 
broad; broadly ovate to suborbicular ; irregularly toothed, sinuate, 
or sometimes 3-5-lobed; glabrous, dark green above, white- 
tomentose to glabrous beneath; petioles long, slender, flattened, 
tomentose. 
FLOWERS.—April-May, before the leaves; dioecious; the 
staminate catkins thick, cylindrical, 2-4 inches long; the pistillate 
catkins slender, 1-2 inches long; calyx 0; corolla 0; stamens 6-16, 
with purple anthers; stigmas 2, branched, yellow. 
FRUIT.—May-June; ovoid, 2-valved capsules, %-%4 inch 
long, borne in drooping catkins 2-4 inches long; seeds light brown, 
surrounded by long, white hairs. 
WINTER-BUDS.—Ovoid, pointed, not: viscid, downy, about 
4 inch long. 
BARK.—Twigs greenish, covered with a white down, be- 
coming greenish gray and marked with darker blotches; dark 
gray and fissured at the base of old trunks. 
WOOD.—Light, soft, weak, difficult to split, reddish yellow, 
with thick, whitish sapwood. 
NOTES.—A native of Europe and Asia. Hardy in Mich- 
igan. Grows rapidly in good soils; thrives in poor soils and 
exposed situations. Roots deep, producing numerous suckers for 
a considerable distance from the tree. 
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