Trees to 30 m tall; trunk to 1.5 m d.b.h.; bark grayish green and smooth when young, dull gray and deeply furrowed when old; crown broadly ellipsoid. Branchlets slightly yellowish russet at first, balsamic, terete, stout, glabrous. Buds chestnut colored or light russet, long ovoid or long conical, large, very viscid, odoriferous, apex acuminate. Leaves of short branchlets with petiole 1.5-3 cm, distally pubescent; leaf blade elliptic, elliptic-oblong, elliptic-lanceolate, or obovate-elliptic, 9-12 cm, abaxially pale or slightly pinkish, adaxially dull green, prominently wrinkled, base narrowly rounded or broadly cuneate, margin glandular crenulate-serrate, apex obtuse. Leaves of long shoots with petioles 4-10 mm; leaf blade narrowly ovate-elliptic, elliptic, or obovate-lanceolate, 5-15 × 8(-9) cm, base usually cuneate. Male catkin 3.5-5 cm; bracts suborbicular or reniform. Male flower: stamens 10-30; anthers dull purple. Female catkin ca. 3.5 cm; rachis glabrous. Capsule green, ovoid-globose, glabrous, (2 or)4-valved, sessile. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun.

Similar to Populus ussuriensis but branchlets reddish, smooth, odorous; leaf blade wrinkled.

Used for wood pulp, timber for construction, plywood, and matchwood.

Forests. Hebei, Heilongjiang (Da Hinggan Ling Diqu), Jilin (Changbai Shan), E Liaoning, Nei Mongol [Korea, Russia]