Populus alba
Common name
white poplar
Family
Salicaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
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
Conservation status
Not applicable
Habitat
Terrestrial.
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).
Flowering
September
Life cycle
Perennial.
Year naturalised
1904
Origin
Eurasia. Africa
Reason for introduction
Agricultural