Handbook of the Trees of New England

by Lorin Low Dame; Henry M. Brooks

Plate XVII.—Populus deltoides.

1. Winter buds.

2. Branch with sterile catkins.

3. Sterile flower, back view.

4. Sterile flower, front view.

5. Scale of sterile flower.

6. Fertile flower.

7. Fruiting catkin.

8. Branch with mature leaves.

9. Variant leaf.

Populus balsamifera, L.

Balsam. Poplar. Balm of Gilead.

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

Newfoundland and Nova Scotia west to Manitoba; northward to the coast of Alaska and along the Mackenzie river to the Arctic circle.

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).