White Poplar

According to A. Nauman (l.c.) P. alba L. is confined to Europe, N. Africa and Anatolia and does not extend to Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, a region where it is replaced by P. caspica Bornm. However, this interpretation has not been accepted by subsequent workers (Meikle, Fl. Cyprus 2: 1491. 1985; Czerepanov, Vasc. Pl. Russia Adj. States (former USSR), 1995 and A. K. Skvortsov, personal communication).

This species is widely cultivated and produces suckers in abundance. It is a handsome road-side tree in Hazara etc.

Trees to 30 m tall, suckering freely; crown broad. Branchlets at first white tomentose; shoots grayish green or brownish, terete, densely white tomentose. Buds russet, ovoid, 4-5 mm, densely white tomentose, glabrescent, shiny. Leaves of short branchlets with petiole slightly flattened, ca. as long as leaf blade; leaf blade ovate-orbicular or elliptic-ovate, 4-8 × 2-5 cm, both surfaces tomentose. Leaves of sprouts and long shoots ovate-orbicular, middle lobe much larger than lateral ones, 4-10 × 3-8 cm, adaxially white tomentose at first, somewhat glabrescent, base broadly cuneate, rounded, truncate, or subcordate, palmately 3-5-lobed; margin irregularly notched; lateral lobes spreading nearly obtusely, entire or notched-lobed. Male catkin 3-6 cm. Male flower: stamens 8-10. Female catkin 5-10 cm. Female flower: stipe short; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule narrowly conical, ca. 5 mm, glabrous, 2-valved. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May.

Medium to large tree, bark whitish to greyish on young branches smooth, rough on old stems. Dense soft cottony tomentum on young shoots. Petiole 2.5-5.5 cm long, covered by cottony tomentum; lamina 5-10.5 cm long, ovate, with obtuse sinuate lobes or 3-5 lobed, usually broader than long, base 3-5 nerved, acute, cottony on the upper surface when young, cottony tomentose on the lower surface. Male catkin 5-10.5 cm long. Male flower: Bract oblanceolate, hairy, tip slightly toothed; disk small; stamens 5-10. Female catkin 3-5 cm. Bract oblanceolate, hairy, tip slightly toothed, disk cup-shaped, crenulate. Stigmas 2, cleft almost to the base into 4 linear lobes. Capsule 5-6.5 mm long, shortly pedicellate, bivaled, smooth.

Distribution: Europe, N. Africa, South West and Western Central Asia including Kashmir and Pakistan (N.W.F. Province, Murree, Baluchistan).

Fl. Per.: May-July.

Native in Xinjiang; planted in Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang [N Africa, SW and WC Asia, Europe].

Populus caspica Bornm. in Fedde Repert. 47: 70. t. 283. 1939; A. Neumann in Rech.f., Fl. Iran. 65: 10. 1969; R.R. Stewart, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. Kashm. 180. 1972.