Populus alba
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
white poplar
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Detailed description
Tree to approx. 25m high, usu. spreading, suckering profusely. Bark grey, rather smooth to shallowly fissured. Shoots white-tomentose, terete. Buds white, with appressed tomentum, not viscid. Young leaves not aromatic. Petiole1.5~5cm long, white-tomentose, slightly compressed. Lamina on vegetative shoots 3~10 x 2~9.5cm, deltoid, with 3~5 lobulate or toothed primary lobes; lamina on adult shoots smaller, ovate, ovate-oblong or suborbicular, lobed or strongly toothed, always white, loosely tomentose below and at first above, later glabrous or nearly so on upper surface, green and shining; margin lacking translucent band; base truncate, rounded or subcordate, glandless; apex obtuse or rounded. Catkins female, pendent, 2~8cm long at antithesis. Rachis villous. Bracts 3~3.5mm long, membranous, shining, brown in upper part, incised to shallowly toothed, prominently long-ciliate. Cup-shaped disc .5~.8mm deep, glabrous or somewhat villous; margin slightly sinuate. Ovary glabrous; stigmas slender, whitish. Capsule containing dense, white cotton-like hairs, esp. towards base. (-Webb et. al., 1988)
Similar taxa
White undersides of leaves (Thompson & Reeves 1994).
Habitat
Terrestrial.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Salicaceae
Ecology
Flowering
September
Year naturalised
1904
Origin
Eurasia. Africa
Reason for introduction
Agricultural
Life cycle
Perennial.
Other information
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
POPALB