Eastern Balsam-poplar
Scientific name: Populus balsamifera L.
Diagnostic features
Tree to 25m with narrow outline, often with many suckers.
Leaves ovate to broadly so, mostly rounded at base, abruptly acuminate at apex.
Petioles as in Populus trichocarpa.
Male and female.
Chromosome number: (2n=38, 76).
Habitat and distribution
Introduced-survivor; planted as for Populus trichocarpa but less common; Eastern North America.
This species is keyed out on Page 1693 in the Text Key.
Hybrids
See Populus jackii(x) Sarg. (= Populus deltoides x Populus balsamifera)
Populus nigra xPopulus jackii(x). (NB This is effectively Populus balsamifera x Populus deltoides x Populus nigra.) In Leeds, Midwest Yorks, Populus jackii(x) has been pollinated by Populus nigra to give strongly regenerating hybrids on waste ground, first found 1983. The hybrids show variable characters of the parents on 1 plant: c.1/2 of the petioles are glabrous, 1/2 pubescent; c.1/2 the leaf-margins are serrate, 1/2 crenate; leaf-base is cuneate (as in Populus nigra) in most cases but c.20% are rounded (shape not in either parent); leaf lowerside colour varies between those of the parents.
See Populus 'Balsam Spire' (= Populus trichocarpa x Populus balsamifera) |
