Populus × canescens
Nothospecies of plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Populus × canescens, the grey poplar, is a hybrid between Populus alba (white poplar) and P. tremula (common aspen). It is intermediate between its parents, with a thin grey downy coating on the leaves, which are much less deeply lobed than the leaves of P. alba. It is a very vigorous tree with marked hybrid vigour, reaching 40 metres (130 feet) tall and with a trunk diameter over 1.5 m (5 ft) – much larger than either of its parents. Most trees in cultivation are male, but female trees occur naturally and some of these are also propagated.[2]
| Populus × canescens | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Malpighiales |
| Family: | Salicaceae |
| Genus: | Populus |
| Section: | Populus sect. Populus |
| Species: | P. × canescens |
| Binomial name | |
| Populus × canescens (Aiton) Sm.[1] | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Taxonomy
In 1789, William Aiton described the grey poplar as a variety of Populus alba, P. alba var. canescens.[3] In 1804, James Edward Smith raised it to a full species, P. canescens.[1] He described differences between the leaves of the two taxa: P. alba has lobed leaves with snow-white ("niveus") undersides, whereas P. canescens has wavy-edged leaves with hoary ("incanus") undersides.[4] Later authors sometimes noted the possibility that the grey poplar was a hybrid.[5] It is now considered to be a hybrid between P. alba and P. tremula,[6] so the scientific name is written with the hybrid symbol.