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Saliaceae
Populus nigra 'Italica'
Also called the Black Poplar, exists in two major form varieties, the other being var. betulifolia
Specimen Size: 79.5ft tall, 35.5in in diameter.
Location: North of the Sylvan grove just west of the entrance near Stevens Way.
Historical Background: This variety of poplar gains its thin ascending shape from a slight mutation which causes its branches to grow primarily skywards. A favorite for windbreaks and roadsides, it has gained wide usage by humans, a condition made easy due to the fact that poplars have the potential to reproduce copiously in a clonal manner.
Non-native
Native Range: Native to Europe and Western Asia. This particular variety was first selected for as an ornamental in Italy.
Identifying Features: The Black poplar has two major forms, one broad and spreading known as betulifolia and this tall straight form known as italica, often called the Lombardy poplar. It is medium sized, with a stout and straight trunk with high apical control and a distinctly narrow and columnar crown. Like other poplars its buds have a distinct resiny scent. Unlike our native Black Cottonwood, a relative, the Lombardy Poplar has toothed leaves. They are light green above and an even paler hue below, growing in an almost triangular shape with a long point at the end. The bark is light gray and deeply furrowed in long strips. Unlike some other varieties of poplar, this tree produces no female flowers or fruit (thus none of that distinctive white fluff which floats around in June to the chagrin of many peoples allergies). They are instead propagated via cloning.
Identifying Features In Depth:
Form: Straight stout trunk supports a narrow columnar crown composed of many short upward pointing brittle branches. The tree attains heights up to about 60’ (18m) and a breadth of as much as 2’ (0.6m).
Leaves: Leaves are a beautiful shiny light green on top, paler below, in a distinctive nearly triangular shape, tapering from a glabrous broad base to a long tip with forward curved teeth which are more wavy than sharp in nature. Leafstalks/petioles are flattened and 1-2” (2.5-5 cm) long, the leaves themselves are about 1.5-3” (4-7.5cm) in length. Small sprialled galls on the leaves from parasitic insects are not uncommon. This deciduous tree turns a bright yellow in autumn.
Bark: Light to medium grey, with thick deep furrows.
Reproductive Bodies: Lombardy poplar produces males catkins 2” (5cm) in length and drooping down with numerous flowers in early spring, but alas the show is to no avail, as the variety is male only and produces no seeds, it must instead be propagated clonally.
Native range of Populus nigra in Europe and west Asia, compiled by Jeger et al.
Below is the description found for this species on the original Brockman Memorial Tree Tour:
Historic Tree Tour Information: Across the street from the Architecture Building on the corner of Stevens Way and Grant Place* is a large Lombardy poplar. This is a towering columnar tree whose burly trunk dates from the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Exposition. Since the tree is readily reproduced by suckers, it has become a common, well known tree in many parts of the world. It originated as a chance mutation in Lombardy, Italy in the late 1600s or early 1700s. Western Washington suits it better than about anywhere else in the United States, so we have many old, landmark specimens.
The leaves are diamond-shaped to triangular and turn a blazing golden yellow in the fall. The bark is grey-green when young but becomes blackened and cracked with furrows, often with large burls. It can be used as a cork substitute. The root system is extensive and aggressive, so this tree should not be planted around drainage systems or close to building foundations. An extract of the shoots of this plant can be used as a rooting hormone for cuttings of other plants. In the spring when the leaves unfold the tree gives off a fragrance similar to balsam. The wood is soft, light and wooly, and not durable or highly flammable.
*This tree has a new place on the tour different from that in the historic tree tour.
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