Range.—Widely distributed in the Old World, extending in Europe from southern Sweden to the Mediterranean, throughout northern Africa, and eastward in Asia to the northwestern Himalayas. Introduced from England by the early settlers and soon established in the colonial towns, as in Plymouth and Duxbury, on the western shore of Massachusetts bay. Planted or spontaneous over a wide area.
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,—occasional.
New England,—occasional throughout, local, sometimes common.
Southward to Virginia.
Habit.—A handsome tree, resembling P. grandidentata more than any other American poplar, but of far nobler proportions; 40-75 feet high and 2-4 feet in diameter at the ground; growing much larger in England; head large, spreading; round-topped, in spring enveloped in a dazzling cloud of cotton white, which resolves itself later into two conspicuously contrasting surfaces of dark green and silvery white.
Bark.—Light gray, smooth upon young trees, in old trees furrowed upon the trunk.
Winter Buds and Leaves.—Buds not viscid, cottony. Leaves 1-4 inches long, densely white-tomentose while expanding, when mature dark green above and white-tomentose to glabrous beneath; outline ovate or deltoid, 3-5-lobed and toothed or simply toothed, teeth irregular; base heart-shaped or truncate; apex acute to obtuse; leafstalk long, slender, compressed; stipules soon falling.
Inflorescence and Fruit.—April to May. Sterile catkins 2-4 inches long, cylindrical, fertile at first shorter,—stamens 6-16; anthers purple: capsules ¼ inch long, narrow-ovoid; seeds hairy.
Horticultural Value.—Hardy. Thrives even in very poor soils and in exposed situations; grows rapidly in good soils; of distinctive value in landscape gardening but not adapted for planting along streets and upon lawns of limited area on account of its habit of throwing out numerous suckers and its liability to damage from heavy winds. The sides of country roads where the abele has been planted are sometimes obstructed for a considerable distance by the thrifty shoots from underground.