Hybrid Black-poplar - Populus nigra x deltoides = P. x canadensis

A tall tree with  spreading crown and upswept lower branches.  The trunk is without burrs. It bears large red male catkins before the leaves, which arrive quite late. Leaves glossy green above when mature, shallowly toothed, long stalked and almost diamond shaped.  Two glands are usually present at the base of the leaf where it joins the petiole.

There are many different cultivars, and Stace (4th edition) should be referred to for a key to these. Some cultivars are female.

The true native Black Poplar (Populus nigra) has similar foliage but is rare in Leicestershire and Rutland.  It is a spreading tree with burrs on the trunk and does not have the large upswept branches of the hybrid tree.

Regularly planted and often found beside roads and in urban areas.

Catkins March and April.

Mainly recorded from England and Eastern Scotland.

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland where it is often planted and may naturalise by suckering. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 154 of the 617 tetrads.