Populus pamirica

Similar to Populus pilosa but branchlets angled; petiole longer, to 7 cm; leaf blade suborbicular, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin coarsely dentate.

Trees. Branches yellowish gray or brownish; branchlets angled, downy. Leaves of short branchlets with petiole terete, 3-7 cm, downy; leaf blade orbicular, 5-8 cm, abaxially greenish, slightly pubescent along veins, adaxially green, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin coarsely sinuate dentate, ciliate, apex apiculate. Sprouts with leaf blade long elliptic, base cuneate, margin nearly doubly serrate, apex shortly acuminate, glabrous. Fruiting catkin ca. 6 cm; rachis pilose. Capsule ovoid, ca. 4 mm, 3-valved, sessile. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

Medium sized tree, branchlets brownish, greyish, sulcate, quadrangular slightly velvety; buds sticky. Leaves petiolate, petiole 2-8 cm long, slightly pubescent; lamina 4-10.5-(18) x 3-9 cm, ovate, crenate to denticulate, glabrous or sparingly pubescent at the margin, acuminate. Male catkin: rachis slightly winged. Stamens 18-25, filaments slender, longer than anthers. Female catkin 6-10 cm long, rachis densely pubescent; capsule, 4 mm long, sparingly hairy, warty, 3-valved, pedicel 1-1.5 mm.

Xinjiang (W Kunlun Shan) [Tajikistan]

Distribution: Afghanistan, Pakistan (Chitral, Gilgit), Kashmir, Tajikistan, China (Xinjiang).

Fl. Per.: May.

Along rivers; 1800-3000 m.

P. balsamifera auct. non. L.: Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 638. 1888; R. Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed. 3: 510. 1956.