Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Populus alba
Common name
White Poplar
Family
Salicaceae
Where found
Naturalised. Roadsides, gullies, and along streams. Canberra suburbs. Sydney area. Sporadic elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced deciduous tree to 20 m high. Spreads by suckering from planted trees. Bark smooth and white to grey, becoming rough with dark furrows toward the base with age. Buds and young shoots densely white-hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 3–12 cm long, 20–120 mm wide, upper surface usually dull, dark green, ultimately hairless, lower surface white and densely hairy, to pale grey and becoming hairless, margins deeply 3-5 lobed or coarsely wavy with irregular teeth. Male and female flowers on different plants. Australian plants appear to be all female. Flowers small, with 0 petals, purplish, in hanging catkins 35–60 mm long. Catkins appearing before the leaves. Seeds minute, covered in white hairs, often released in large quantities.
Pest plant ACT.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Populus~alba (accessed 2 February, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
