Populus alba

Populus alba, the white poplar, common poplar or white poplar It is a leafy tree belonging to the Salicaceae. Other common or common names for this species are: silver poplar or afghan poplar.

Origin and habitat

It is a species native to the Palearctic, its natural distribution ranges from the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco to Central Asia, being present in most of temperate Europe. It grows in moist places, often by water, in regions with hot summers and cool winters.

It also grows naturalized in temperate latitudes of South America.

Description

Cortez.

Populus alba - MHNT

Illustration

View of the plant

Detail of the leaf

Inflorescence

Illustration

Body

• Corpulent deciduous tree with rounded shape and rapid growth, up to 30 m high and 1 m in diameter, wide and spinal, thick trunk and strong radical system, with numerous long secondary roots that emit a multitude of revels. Lightweight, white, gray, fissured, darker at the base, with the black scars of old branches.

Leaves

• Leaves: deciduous, simple, alternating, ovals or palms, dented edge; covered in a dense layer of whitish-colored hairs.
• Tomented leaves on both sides and on the petiole. Variable leaves in the shoots, with 3-5 lobes, white and hairy of young people, the adults with dark green beam, glabro and densely white-tomentose veins, very polymorphic limbo.
• Older leaves usually palmed-lobed, decorated base. Leaves of the rounded or aovate branches, little lobed, with less toment. Hanging elements. Males 3-6 cm long, woolly. Longer and thinner females.
  In autumn the coloration is brown or yellowish.

Flowers

• Male flowers are large and reddish, in hanging elements, female flowers are yellow-green on separate feet.
• It blooms before the leaves spring.

Fruit and seeds

• Fruit in capsule bivalva, ovoida and lampiña.
• Seeds with a pity of hair.

Symbols

See poplar symbology

Cultivation and uses

Cultivation

• Reproduction
  • It is multiplied by cuttings and by stirrings that plentifully spring around an adult foot.
• Podas
  • They admit strong waves to reduce the annoying bloom for allergic people.
• Soil
  • It grows in fresh, rich soils (but it has no great requirements for the type of soil, being able to live in poor calcareous soils) and wet in the proximity of the rivers.
  • In addition, they are able to grow on a sandy coastal soil supporting eventual seawater stagnations in their root system.
• Climate
  • It supports well the cold and excessive heats in order to have water supply.
  • It has a rapid growth.
  • By the amount of renews it emits you can compete with other nearby species.
  • Its roots are aggressive, so its plantation should be discarded near installations or buildings.
• Conditions: the wings can withstand the pollution and influence of the sea so it is used as a defense screen near the sea.
• Plates and diseases: saperda, white fly, oidio.

Uses

• The wood is used in imagery, the bark was also used to tan and dye.
• The homogeneous wood of light density, porous and easy and fast drying; it is resistant to abrasion and elastic:

The wood is used in light carpentry, cellulose paste, panels, packaging, plywood, matches for its slow combustion, pavements, etc.

• I'll drive it. pyramidalis Bunge (Boleana chopo, Populus bolleana Carr.) has the trunk evenly branched almost from the base and the porte is pyramidal. It is widely used in alignments by its porte. It supports poor, clay or calcareous soils. It's from Turkestan.
• Magical applications: the white wing (Eadha) corresponded to the letter E in the old Dry alphabet Ogham:

The buds and leaves of the poplar were taken over to attract money.

• It is cultivated as an ornamental tree, but they need large gardens, in alamedas, used by the color of its bark, the contrast of its leaves and the pleasant shade it offers.
• Very used as windbreaks and in roads near the sea.
• Popularly recognized lamagueiro like a tree with healing properties. Hospitalization sores and other less severe wounds can be cured using the cooking water of their leaves to wash them. If the leaves are not available, the cooking of the bark also serves.

Taxonomy

Populus alba was described by Carlos Linnaeus and published in Species Plantarum 2: 1034. 1753.

Etymology

Populus: Generic name derived from Latin, 'popular' for being abundant and in great quantity.

alba: Latin epithet meaning 'white,' where it refers to the white color on the underside of the leaves.

Sinonimia

• Octima canescens Raf. 1838
• Populus denudata A.Braun in Hartig, 1850
• Populus bogueana Dode, 1905
• Populus floccosa Dode, 1905
• Populus globosa Dode, 1905
• Populus heteroloba Dode, 1905
• Populus hickeliana Dode, 1905
• Populus megaleuce Dode, 1905
• Populus peroneana Dode, 1905
• Populus triloba Dode, 1905
• Populus berkarensis Poljakov 1950
• Populus excelsa Salisbury 1796 (nom. illeg.)
• Leuce alba (L.) Opiz 1852 (nom. inval.)
• Populus hopeiensis Poljakov, 1950 (nom. inval.), non Hu & H.F.Chow, 1934
• Populus bolleana Lauche
• Populus nivea (Aiton) Willd.

Common name

• Castilian: Alm, white, hut, white hut, wild hut, poplar, alvar, white alamo, white alamo-white, white alamo, common alamo, silvery alamo, pearl, pob, albar pob, white tree, trembling.