Trees to 25 m tall; trunk erect; bark grayish green, smooth, with orbicular or long elliptic, crowded lenticels; crown ovoid or widely ovoid. Lateral branches spreading; branchlets grayish green or slightly red; juvenile branchlets light green or reddish, not angled. Stem apex of seedlings with white mucilage in leaf axil. Buds curved outward, long conical, viscid, apex brownish or dull red. Leaves of short branchlets with petiole laterally flattened, 2-4.5 cm; leaf blade ovate, 3-9 cm, abaxially bluish white, adaxially light green, base rounded or broadly cuneate to cuneate, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate or long acuminate. Leaves of long shoots and sprouts broadly ovate or deltoid-ovate, base cordate or rounded, margin crisped, coarsely crenate-serrate, translucent at edge, sparsely ciliate, glabrescent, apex shortly acuminate. Male catkin 2.5-3 cm; bracts brownish, ca. 4 mm, irregularly laciniate. Male flower: stamens 18-21. Fl. Mar. 2n = 38, 40.

An artificial hybrid between Populus cathayana and P. nigra var. italica, with many cultivars.

* Widely planted. N China