• Northern Hemisphere

• may form extensive forests on barren, burned, or cleared areas
  
• rapid-growing
• short-lived
• bark is distinctly smooth; greenish-white when young, and dark-furrowed when older

• single-toothed
  
• alternate
  
• somewhat triangular
  
• 3-5 main veins meeting near the leaf base
  
• leafstalks are long

• long, clustered caterpillar-like catkins
  
• often release cottony seeds
• sexes are on separate trees

A piece of this dried softwood can be used to construct the fireboard of a bow drill, useful for igniting a pile of tinder. A section of green twig from this tree can be used as an old-fashioned toothbrush. Dead poplar trunks can provide a warm winter bed. The leaves can be boiled to produce lime-yellow dye for fabric.