Poplar

Family Salicaceae. Name: poplars - traditional and much-loved ornamental trees. Today, there is probably no settlement whose green dress would not include poplars. Already in Ancient Greece they lined squares and streets with them and called them "the people's" - 'populus', hence the genus poplar received this name. According to another version 'Populus' is an old-Latin name of the plant from 'palpito' - to tremble - for the play of the leaves in gusts of wind.

Description: these are large dioecious trees up to 40 m tall, with small flowers gathered in catkins that appear before the leaves begin to unfold or simultaneously with them. Fruit - a capsule with small seeds, equipped with flying hairs in the form of a tuft of hairs ("poplar fluff"). During seed dispersal the fluff is carried in large quantities through the air, littering everything around. Therefore, when using poplars in landscaping one should avoid planting female specimens. When propagating vegetatively one should use ONLY MALE specimens of the plants. Among the negative qualities are their relatively short longevity and considerable damage by pests (especially the poplar moth, from which the balsam poplar suffers most). A valuable quality is sufficient resistance to smoke and gases, the ability to enrich the air with phytoncides and to kill pathogenic microbes.

;

The genus poplars includes 110 species. Crossing various species has produced a huge number of fast-growing hybrids. Leaves are glabrous or pubescent, from lanceolate to broadly ovate. The crown can also vary - ovoid, pyramidal, tent-shaped, or weeping.