Flora of New Zealand Series

Lombardy poplar

Tree to 20 m high (more in cultivation), columnar or fastigiate. Bark rough, fissured. Branchlets light grey. Young shoots glabrous or puberulent. Buds and very young lvs viscid, glabrous. Young lvs not aromatic. Petiole 1.5-6 cm long, compressed, sometimes puberulent when young. Lamina 2.5-9 × 2-11 cm, rhombic-deltoid to rhombic, glabrous, green above and below; margin with narrow translucent border, crenate or crenate-serrate; base truncate to cuneate, glandless; apex usually cuspidate or acuminate. Catkins ♂, pendulous, to 7 cm long; scales at base to c. 2.3 cm long. Rachis glabrous, white. Bracts strongly laciniate, 2-2.5 mm long excluding the subulate teeth, glabrous, white. Cup-shaped disc 2-3 mm deep, oblique, glabrous. Stamens 15-30; anthers light to deep crimson.

N.: occasional in many localities; S.: especially in inland areas.

Origin unknown 1940

FL Sep.

Lombardy poplar has been planted extensively throughout all settled areas; its erect, narrow habit making it especially useful as a windbreak. It often spreads from original plantings because portions of the stem are easily detached and will grow in moist ground. The lvs turn golden and are a characteristic and prominent feature of the autumn landscape in many inland areas.

Lombardy poplar is generally considered to be a single ♂ clone, cv. 'Italica', of P. nigra, black poplar. Its unusual fastigiate habit, which is rare in broad-leaved trees, ease of propagation, and rapidity of growth has resulted in the widespread cultivation of Lombardy poplar in temperate regions of the world. ♀ and ♂ clones of similar fastigiate poplars are known in cultivation in Asia and the Mediterranean region and have recently been introduced to N.Z. These are probably either hybrids of Lombardy poplar with an unknown ♀ parent, or belong to a C. Asian variant of P. nigra called P. uzbekistanica Komarov. Allan (1940) recorded typical P. nigra, as well as cv. 'Italica', but this record is unsubstantiated. The typical spreading black poplar of Europe and W. Asia is rarely cultivated in N.Z.