Black Poplar

It is the chief source of timber in the dry inner valleys were it is irrigated up to c. 4000 m (R. R. Stewart, l.c.).

Three varieties are recognized. Our material is in conformity with var. italica (Moench) Koehne, Deut. Dendrol. 81. 1893. (Populus italica Moench, Verz. Ausländ Bäume 79. 1785).

Trees to 30 m tall; bark dull gray, furrowed when older; crown broadly ovoid. Branchlets yellowish, terete, glabrous. Buds russet, ovoid, very viscid. Petiole ca. as long as or longer than leaf blade, laterally flattened, glabrous; leaf blade rhombic, rhombic-ovoid, or deltoid, 5-10 × 4-8 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially greenish, adaxially green, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, rarely truncate, margin crenate-serrate, ciliate, apex long acuminate. Flower buds outwardly curved at apex. Male catkin 5-6 cm; rachis glabrous; bracts brownish, 3-4 mm, membranous, laciniate. Male flower: stamens 15-30; anthers purplish red. Fruiting catkin 5-10 cm. Female flower: ovary ovoid, glabrous, stipitate; stigmas 2. Capsule ovoid, 5-7 × 3-4 mm, 2-valved, stipitate. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun. 2n = ?19*, 38*, 57.

Tree, up to 35 m tall,bark dull gray. Buds sticky. Young shoot terete, glabrous. Leaves on long shoots larger, broadly deltoid to deltoid, usually broader than long, truncate or rounded at the base, crenate, acute to acuminate. Leaves on short shoot smaller, rhombic ovate, longer than broad, cuneate at base, crenate-serrate, acuminate. Peiole 2.5-6 cm long, glabrous, lamina 5-10 (-12) x 4-8 (-15) cm. Male catkin 5-7.5 cm long; bracts brownish, 3-4 mm. Stamens (6)-15-30, anthers purple. Female catkin 5-10.5 cm. Ovary glabrous, stigmas 2, sessile, broad, obcordate. Fruiting catkin (5)-10-16 cm long. Capsule shortly stipitate, 2-valved, 5-7 x 3-4 mm.

Fl. Per.: April-May.

Along rivers. Native in Xinjiang; cultivated in Fujian, Hebei, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [N Africa, WC Asia, Europe].