Populus ×canescens
Sm.Tree to 30 m high; bark grey or blueish grey, smooth; young shoots densely grey- or white-tomentose. Buds ovoid, tomentose. Leaves of 2 kinds; those towards the apex of long-shoots erose-dentate to shallowly lobed, 5–10 cm long, almost as wide as long, ultimately glabrous and dark green above, thinly tomentose or subglabrous below; leaves of short-shoots irregularly and bluntly sinuate-lobed, 3–8 cm long, almost as wide as long, both surfaces thinly tomentose or subglabrous. Catkins appearing before leaves; catkin-scales laciniate, ovate to obovate. Male catkins 5–8 cm long; stamens 8–10, anthers reddish. Female catkins 5–10 cm long. Capsule 3–4 mm long, dehiscing via 2 valves. Flowers spring.
VVP, GipP, Gold, EGL, EGU, HSF, Strz, VAlp. Populus ×canescens is sometimes grown as a specimen or street tree in Victoria and is known to persist and spread via suckers in some localities.
A fertile hybrid derived from P. alba and P. tremula. Populus ×canescens is distinguished from P. alba by the irregularly erose-dentate to shallowly lobed long-shoot leaves that are thinly cobwebbed below, and catkin-scales that are laciniate. Whereas long-shoot leaves of P. alba are usually deeply palmatifid, with a densely hairy undersurface, and catkin-scales are entire.