Balsamiflua euphratica (Olivier) Kimura; Populus ariana Dode; P. diversifolia Schrenk; P. litwinowiana Dode; Turanga euphratica (Olivier) Kimura.

Trees to 15 m tall, rarely shrubby; bark grayish brown, furrowed on basal part of trunk. Branchlets brownish, tomentulose or glabrous, pilose when young. Sprouts terete, slender, smooth or slightly tomentose. Buds brown, ellipsoid, ca. 7 mm, glabrescent. Petiole at maturity slightly complanate, ca. as long as leaf blade; leaf blade ovate-orbicular, reniform, or deltoid-ovate, base cuneate, broadly cuneate, rounded, or truncate, with 2 glands, apex with coarse teeth. Leaves of seedling stage and on sprouts shortly petiolate; leaf blade linear, lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, or oblanceolate, margin entire or with irregular, loose, undulate teeth. Male catkin slender, terete, 2-3 cm; rachis tomentulose. Male flower: anthers purplish red. Female catkin 2.5 cm, to 9 cm in fruit; rachis tomentulose or glabrous; ovary long ovoid, tomentulose or glabrous, long stipitate. Female flower: stigmas 3, yellowish green, each 2-lobed. Capsule 1-1.2 cm, glabrous, 2- or 3-valved. Fl. May, fr. Jul-Aug.

Used for timber; vulnerable.

Plains, valleys, basins; 200-2400 m. Gansu, W Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Xinjiang [Afghanistan, ?India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].