Flora of New Zealand Series

balm of Gilead poplar

Tree to c. 60 m high, with spreading habit, suckering extensively. Bark grey, fissured. Shoots ± terete, glabrous except when very young. Buds very viscid, glabrous. Young lvs very aromatic (balsam-scented). Petioles 3.5-7 cm long, ± terete when fresh, with patent hairs and glandular-viscid. Lamina 6-23 × 5.5-20 cm, broad-ovate, hairy on veins above and beneath, green above, greenish white beneath; margins ciliate, crenate-serrate with gland-tipped teeth, without translucent border; base cordate or subcordate, sometimes rounded, with 2, sometimes inconspicuous, glands; apex cuspidate or acuminate. Catkins ♀, pendulous, 13-19 cm long at anthesis. Rachis sparsely hairy. Bracts 4-5 mm long excluding long filiform lobes, glabrous, greenish white. Cup-shaped disc 1.5-3 mm deep, almost symmetric, glabrous; margin irregular. Ovary glabrous; stigmas very large, irregularly 3-lobed. Capsule 4.5-9 mm long, broad-ovoid, containing abundant, long, white, silky hairs.

N.: Weber (Hawke's Bay), Bunnythorpe (Wairarapa); S.: Christchurch area, Albury and Jollie Gorge, Mt Cook Station, Liebig Range (Canterbury), C. Otago.

Origin unknown 1983

Rough pastures, especially alongside roadsides and near farm boundaries.

FL Sep.

P. × gileadensis has been widely planted and because of its strong tendency to sucker, it sometimes forms stands consisting of many trees and covering considerable areas which have originated from one or a few plants. The parents of this hybrid are probably the N. American spp. P. deltoides Marsh and P. balsamifera L. (usually known as P. tacamahacca Miller. Balm of Gilead poplar is only known as a ♀ clone, best treated as P. × gileadensis `Candicans'. Capsules and rudimentary seed with long white silky hairs are produced as in the other ♀ poplar clones described here. No indigenous populations of this taxon are known. Some authorities treat it as a separate sp., P. candicans Aiton.