Trees to 20 m tall; bark dark gray, furrowed. Branchlets yellowish brown, coarsely robust. Leaves of short branchlets with petiole violet, 2-3 cm, glabrous; leaf blade ovate to lanceolate, margin glandular serrate; veins white villous abaxially, subglabrous adaxially. Long shoots with leaf blade elliptic-ovate to long elliptic-ovate, 10-15 cm, base subcordate, apex acute.

Similar to Populus lasiocarpa. Described by L.-A. Dode using a plant cultivated in Paris, introduced from C China; to date, no specimens have been collected that agree with the original description

C China.