Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Dioecious shrubs or trees with alternate simple deciduous leaves; stipules paired, caducous or persistent.

Flowers small, in catkins; each flower subtended by a bract; perianth 0 or represented by disk or 2 scales; stamens 2 or more, fused or free. ovary superior, 1-celled, with numerous parietal or basal ovules; style 2-4-fid.

Capsule 2-4-valved; seeds numerous, enveloped in fine hairs arising from the funicle.

Distribution:  3 genera and about 530 species, chiefly in the northern temperate regions; none native in Australia.

Biology: Many species of Populus (poplars) and Salix (willows) are commonly cultivated; the former differing in having a cup-shaped disk and all catkins pendulous compared with Salix in which there is no disk and the male catkins are erect. P. alba L. (white poplar), with leaves whitish-tomentose below, and P. nigra L. var. italica Du Roi (Lornhardy poplar), with glabrous leaves, are particularly commonly grown and may be partly naturalised. Both are recorded for S.Aust. by Rodd (Flora of Australia 8 (1982) 200-206) but I have seen no specimens.

Author: Prepared by J. P. Jessop