Poplar Large-toothed Aspen

=Habitat and Range.=--In rich or poor soils; woods, hillsides, borders

of streams.



Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southern Quebec, and Ontario.



New England,--common, occasional at altitudes of 2000 feet or more.



South to Pennsylvania and Delaware, along the mountains to

Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee; west to Minnesota.



=Habit.=--A tree 30-45 eet in height and 1 foot to 20 inches in

diameter at the ground, sometimes attaining much greater dimensions;

trunk erect, with an open, unsymmetrical, straggling head; branches

distant, small and crooked; branchlets round; spray sparse, consisting

of short, stout, leafy shoots; in time and manner of blossoming,

constant motion of foliage, and general habit, closely resembling P.

tremuloides.



=Bark.=--Bark of trunk on old trees dark grayish-brown or blackish,

irregularly furrowed, broad-ridged, the outer portions separated into

small, thickish scales; trunk of young trees soft greenish-gray;

branches greenish-gray, darker on the underside; branchlets dark

greenish-gray, roughened with leaf-scars; season's twigs in fall dark

reddish-brown, at first tomentose, becoming smooth and shining.



=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds 1/8 inch long, mostly divergent, light

chestnut, more or less pubescent, dusty-looking, ovate, acute. Leaves

3-5 inches long, two-thirds as wide, densely white-tomentose when

opening, usually smooth on both sides when mature, dark green above,

lighter beneath, bright yellow in autumn; outline roundish-ovate,

coarsely and irregularly sinuate-toothed; teeth acutish; sinuses in

shallow curves; apex acute; base truncate or slightly heart-shaped;

leafstalks long, strongly flattened at right angles to the plane of the

blade; stipules thread-like, soon falling.



=Inflorescence.=--March to April. Sterile catkins 1-3 inches long,

fertile at first about the same length, but gradually elongating;

bracts cut into several lanceolate divisions, silky-hairy; stamens about

10; anthers red: ovaries short-stalked; stigmas two, 2-lobed, red.



=Fruit.=--Fruiting catkins at length 3-6 inches long; capsule conical,

acute, roughish-scurfy, hairy at tip: seeds numerous, hairy.



=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows almost

anywhere, but prefers moist, rich loam; grows rapidly and is safely

transplanted, but is unsymmetrical, easily broken by the wind, and

short-lived; seldom offered by nurserymen, but readily procured from

northern collectors of native plants. Useful to grow for temporary

effect with permanent trees, as it will fail by the time the desirable

kinds are well established. Propagated from seed or cuttings.



=Note.=--Points of difference between P. tremuloides and P.

grandidentata. These trees may be best distinguished in early spring by

the color of the unfolding leaves. In the sunlight the head of P.

tremuloides appears yellowish-green, while that of P. grandidentata

is conspicuously cotton white. The leaves of P. grandidentata are

larger and more coarsely toothed, and the main branches go off usually

at a broader angle. The buds of P. grandidentata are mostly divergent,

dusty-looking, dull; of P. tremuloides, mostly appressed, highly

polished with a resinous lustre.






1. Branch with sterile catkins.

2. Sterile flower, back view,

3. Sterile flower, front view.

4. Branch with fertile catkins.

5. Bract of fertile flower.

6. Fertile flower, front view.

7. Fruiting branch with mature leaves.

8. Fruit.

9. Fruit.





=Populus heterophylla, L.=