Black poplarBen Wallace, CC BY 4.0
Native · Up to 38 m

Black poplar

Populus nigra · Salicaceae

Black poplar is a huge, broad tree on a short trunk that nearly always leans. Its heavy branches arch out and down. The trunk is covered in burrs, woody lumps that grow out of the bark.

Often mistaken for aspen. How to tell them apart →
Know it byShapeBroad, on a short leaning trunk, ending in a mass of twigs.BarkGreyish brown to almost black and deeply cracked.LeavesSmall, about 7 cm, triangular to diamond, with a long fine tip.

Then check · TwigsAmber and knobbly, with long, sharply pointed dull orange buds that are a little sticky and lie flat against the shoot.

How to identify a black poplar

Black poplar: shapeBen Wallace, CC BY 4.0
Shape

Broad, on a short leaning trunk, with low branches that sweep down and turn up again into a mass of twigs.

Black poplar: leaves
Leaves

Small, about 7 cm, triangular to diamond-shaped with a long, fine tip, and shiny green on both sides.

Learn the black poplar in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely

Every part, in photographs

Black poplar leaves: small, shiny green, with a long fine tip
LeavesSmall, shiny green, with a long fine tip
Black poplar catkins: red male catkins, green female, separate treesZeke Marshall, CC BY 4.0
CatkinsRed male catkins, green female, separate trees
Black poplar bark: dark and deeply cracked, studded with burrsZeke Marshall, CC BY 4.0
BarkDark and deeply cracked, studded with burrs
Black poplar shape: leaning trunk, arching limbs, shoots massed aboveBen Wallace, CC BY 4.0
ShapeLeaning trunk, arching limbs, shoots massed above

When to look

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In leaf
Catkins
Fruit

In leaf: April to October · Catkins: March to April · Fruit: May to June

Every tree on the calendar

Where you’ll find it

River floodplains, ditches and flooded gravel pits. It does best on boggy ground, and is commonest in Shropshire, Cheshire, Somerset and East Anglia. Younger trees are planted in rows for shelter at recreation grounds, and in gardens.

What it’s mistaken for

Black poplar: leaf shape and tipAspen: leaf shape and tipBlack poplar or aspen?Both hang their leaves on a stalk flattened side to side, so both turn in a breeze.Leaf shape and tip
  • Lombardy poplarBoth are black poplar: Lombardy poplar is a narrow garden form of it, grown from cuttings and often planted in rows. Shape. Black poplar: huge and broad, limbs arching out and down. Lombardy poplar: narrow column, every branch held upright.
  • White poplarBoth are broad poplars with knobbly winter twigs. Leaf. Black poplar: shiny green, like the top. White poplar: thick white hairs, kept all season.
  • Grey poplarBoth are big poplars with a heavy trunk, and both stand on damp lowland ground. Leaf. Black poplar: triangular to diamond, long fine tip. Grey poplar: rounded, with big wave-shaped teeth.

More willows and poplars

AspenPopulus tremulaBay willowSalix pentandraLombardy poplarPopulus nigra 'Italica'Weeping willowSalix × sepulcralis 'Chrysocoma'White poplarPopulus albaWhite willowSalix alba
In the app

There’s more of the black poplar in Treely

  • Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
  • Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
  • A short round each dayUntil you know the black poplar on sight, from any side
  • Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree
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Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.

Photographs: Ben Wallace (CC BY 4.0), Zeke Marshall (CC BY 4.0), olly_morgan (CC0), Barry Walter (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.