Trees to 30 m tall; trunk erect, shallowly furrowed at base; bark brownish gray and smooth, grayish green, grayish white, or greenish gray when young; lenticels rhombic, crowded; crown conical or tower-shaped. Lateral branches diverging from trunk at less than 45° ; young branchlets grayish yellow, slightly angled, pilose. Buds russet, long ellipsoid-conical, 0.8-1.4 cm, viscid, apex obtuse. Leaves of short branchlets with petiole 1.5-3.5 cm, terete, slightly flattened distally, pilose or glabrous; leaf blade rhombic-deltoid, rhombic-elliptic, or broadly rhombic-ovate, 3-8 × 2-5 cm, abaxially greenish, glabrous, adaxially green, pilose along veins, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin glandular serrate, entire near base, sometimes translucent, apex acuminate. Sprouts and long shoots with leaf blade rhombic-deltoid, rarely obovate, larger, base broadly cuneate to rounded, apex mucronate. Male catkin 5-6 cm. Male flower: stamens 8-15. Female catkin 4-6 cm, 10-16 cm in fruit. Female flower: stigma 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid, large, 2(or 3)-valved. Seeds russet, obovate. Fl. Apr, fr. May.

A hybrid between Populus nigra var. italica and P. simonii.

A fast-growing tree important for timber, reforestation, and soil retention.

* Cultivated. E Henan, Jiangsu, Jilin (Baicheng Xian), Liaoning, E Nei Mongol (Jirem Meng, Ju Ud Meng), Shandong