Trees to 20 m tall; trunk columnar, slightly furrowed at base when old; bark grayish green, when old dull grayish brown, smooth; lenticels loose; crown long ovoid. Lateral branches spreading from trunk at 45-60° ; sprouts grayish green, 3-angled below scars; short branchlets grayish brown or grayish white, terete. Buds slightly reddish brown, conical, apex acuminate, Leaves of short branchlets with petiole yellowish green, 2-4 cm, flattened at apex, glabrous; leaf blade rhombic-elliptic or rhombic-ovate, 5-8 × 4-4.5 cm, abaxially greenish, glabrous, adaxially bright green, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, margin crenate-serrate, entire near base, narrow and translucent at edge, apex long caudate or long acuminate. Leaves of long shoots with petiole reddish, flattened, short; leaf blade broadly ovate or rhombic-deltoid, base subcordate or broadly cuneate, apex shortly acuminate or mucronate. Male catkin 4.5-5.5 cm; bracts yellow, brown at apex, elliptic, laciniate. Male flower buds ox-horn-shaped, bent outward, often 3 or 4 together, viscid; disc yellow, flabelliform; stamens 20-30. Female catkin 5-7 cm, to 17 cm in fruit. Capsule ovoid-ellipsoid, large, 2-valved, stipitate. Seeds 5-10, russet, obovate. Fl. Apr, fr. May.

A hybrid between Populus nigra and P. simonii.

Used for wood pulp, fibers, timber for construction, and matchwood; also planted for reforestation.

* Widely planted. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi