Lombardy poplar

Botanical name

Populus nigra 'Italica'

Type

Deciduous tree, columnar, fast growing

Form

Narrow upright crown with branches pressed to the trunk

Life expectancy

Short lived compared with most shade trees

Typical planting

Single or double rows as windbreaks and screens

Hardiness

Zones 6b to 7b across the service area

Older lots and ranches often keep windbreak rows of Lombardy poplar along roads and property lines. It is a short-lived tree, so an old row may be near the end of its life.

How do you identify a Lombardy poplar?

Form gives it away: a tall, narrow column with branches angled sharply upward. Leaves are triangular with a pointed tip and flutter in the wind. Bark is gray-green and smooth when young, deeply furrowed and dark on old trees. Trees in a row are typically the same age and size.

• Tall, narrow, flame-shaped crown
• Triangular leaves that tremble in wind
• Dark, furrowed bark on old trees
• Often planted in straight rows

Where does it grow here?

Lombardy poplar is a valley and ranch tree, found along fields, ditches and driveways on the valley floors: Washoe Valley (about 5,100 feet), the Carson Valley (about 4,700 to 4,900 feet), Dayton (about 4,400 feet) and Reno and Carson City edges. Those lots are in zones 6b to 7b. The nearest NOAA stations record about 7 to 9 inches of precipitation a year, so rows survive on ditch or drip water. When a ditch is piped or the irrigation stops, they decline within a few seasons.

What goes wrong with Lombardy poplar?

Short life is the pattern. Dead tops, bare upper branches and peeling bark are the signs of a row on its way out. Cankers and borers go with poplars in general, and an arborist identifies what is happening before anyone decides to cut. See drought stress and dieback.

Poplar wood is soft. Snow and wind strip limbs and snap tops, and a row that has lost a tree leaves its neighbors exposed. A tall, dry row beside a house is also a fire problem. Poplars also sucker from the roots, and the suckers show up in lawns and beds.

What does an arborist check on a row of poplars?

We walk the row. We note which trees are dead from the top, which are leaning and which are still sound, and we look at what each tree could land on: house, fence, driveway, road or wire. Sometimes the answer is to take out the worst trees first and keep the sound ones for a few more years, and sometimes the whole row has to go in one visit. The estimate says which, and it covers the stumps and the haul-away.

Pruning, topping and removal

Dead branches and hazards can come off at any time. Otherwise, late winter while dormant is the usual time for deciduous trees. A poplar's tall, narrow form does not tolerate topping: the cut tops sprout weak shoots and decay enters the wound. See why topping is not pruning.

Removal is the usual answer for dead or dying trees, trunks with decay, and rows leaning toward a house, road or power line. Tall poplars are often crane-assisted removals, and a whole row is a large tree removal job. Stump grinding limits the suckering. For lines near NV Energy equipment, see utility and structure clearance; NV Energy handles its own primary lines.