Index    Handbook of the Trees of New England by Lorin Low Dame, Henry Brooks

Populus balsamifera, L. Balsam. Poplar. Balm of Gilead.

Habitat and Range.—Alluvial soils; river banks, valleys, borders of swamps, woods.

Maine,—common; New Hampshire,—Connecticut river valley, generally near the river, becoming more plentiful northward; Vermont,—frequent; Massachusetts and Rhode Island,—not reported; Connecticut,—extending along the Housatonic river at New Milford for five or six miles, perhaps derived from an introduced tree (C. K. Averill, Rhodora, II, 35).

Habit.—A medium-sized tree, 30-75 feet high, trunk 1-3 feet in diameter, straight; branches horizontal or nearly so, slender for size of tree, short; head open, narrow-oblong or oblong-conical; branchlets mostly terete; foliage thin.

Bark.—In old trees dark gray or ash-gray, firm-ridged, in young trees smooth; branchlets grayish; season's shoots reddish or greenish brown, sparsely orange-dotted.

Winter Buds and Leaves.—Buds 3/4 inch long, appressed or slightly divergent, conical, slender, acute, resin-coated, sticky, fragrant when opening. Leaves 3-6 inches long, about one-half as wide, yellowish when young, when mature bright green, whitish below; outline ovate-lanceolate or ovate, finely toothed, gradually tapering to an acute or acuminate apex; base obtuse to rounded, sometimes truncate or heart-shaped; leafstalk much shorter than the blade, terete or nearly so; stipules soon falling. The leaves of var. intermedia are obovate to oval; those of var. latifolia closely approach the leaves of P. candicans.

Inflorescence.—April. Sterile 3-4 inches long, fertile at first about the same length, gradually elongating, loosely flowered; bracts irregularly and rather narrowly cut-toothed, each bract subtending a cup-shaped disk; stamens numerous; anthers red: ovary short-stalked; stigmas two, 2-lobed, large, wavy-margined.

Fruit.—Fruiting catkins drooping, 4-6 inches long: capsules ovoid, acute, longer than the pedicels, green: seeds numerous, hairy.

Horticultural Value.—Hardy throughout New England; grows in all excepting very wet soils, in full sun or light shade, and in exposed situations; of rapid growth, but subject to the attacks of borers, which kill the branches and make the head unsightly; also spreads from the roots, and therefore not desirable for ornamental plantations; most useful in the formation of shelter-belts; readily transplanted but not common in nurseries. Propagated from cuttings.

Plate XVIII.—Populus balsamifera.