How to Identify Balsam Poplar in the Winter (Populus balsamifera)

Описание: #Salicaceae #Populus #botany

You might see these called black cottonwood or balm of Gilead, these are the subspecies of this tree! Poplar and aspen species in the genus Populus are extremely common along rivers, and play an important role in stabilizing stream banks. Here I show you how to identify Balsam poplar!

To ID to the genus Populus, look for the following features. Most of these come from "Plants of Pennsylvania" by Rhoads and Block, which has the best winter key I've seen! Even if you live outside of PA, it's a really good resource to ID to family and genus.

1. Whitish bark: all the way down on younger trees, up at the top on older ones. Kinda birchy, kinda beechy. Not a birch, not a beech!
2. Lateral buds 3-ranked: lateral buds are where leaves are going to grow from, and on aspens and poplars they grow from 3 positions on the twig.
3. A scale right above the leaf scar: watch the video for a visual!

To ID to balsamifera, look for the following:

1. Fragrant, resinous buds.
2. Dig of some leaves and look for round petioles and shallow teeth.

You can find these all across the northern US and most of Canada, so get out to your local streams and start looking!

** Some field guides might list this species as Populus trichocarpa. Don’t get too hung up on this, this name is synonymous to Populus balsamifera. **

Thanks for watching!