Western balsam poplar
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Western balsam poplar ( Populus trichocarpa ) |
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The Populus trichocarpa ( Populus trichocarpa ) is a plant from the genus of poplars in the family of the pasture plants (Salicaceae).
distribution
The western balsam poplar is native to western North America from Alaska to California . In Germany it is often planted, especially as a street or park tree.
description
The western balsam poplar is a tree that reaches heights of up to 35 meters. The treetop of young trees is narrowly conical. In older trees, the crown looks like a broom, since practically all branches are almost vertical. The bark of the twigs is initially yellowish, later shiny reddish. The approximately 3 cm long pointed end bud is shiny red-brown; the side buds are only 1 cm long and brown; they are nestled against the branch. Budding begins early in April; the buds that pop up then release a strong balsamic scent, which the tree owes its name to.
The leaves are oblong to broadly ovate and 10 to 30 cm long. They are thick and finely notched on the edge. On top they are dark green; the underside is whitish and often reddish brown along the leaf veins . The autumn color is initially yellow and later light brown; the undersides remain whitish for a long time and give a nice contrast in the autumn color.
Like almost all other poplar species, the western balsam poplar is dioeciously segregated ( diocesan ). Long carmine-red catkins about 8 cm long form on the male trees at the beginning of April before the leaves shoot. The female flowers are green and loose; the white woolly seeds are released in May.
The western balsam poplar is a very fast-growing tree in Central Europe ; Annual growth of two meters is not uncommon.
It has also been planted in Iceland since 1944 - for the first time at the Múlakot farm in Fljótshlíð , which is now part of the Rangárþing eystra parish in the Rangárvallasýsla district. Today this forest together with some acquired land has become a national forest (ísl .: þjóðarskógur) of southern Iceland, region of Suðurland . It was then also planted in other regions of Iceland, namely in Eyjafjörður , and has since spread there through natural insemination.
Genomics
The genome of the Western balsam poplar is with the size of just over 500 million base pairs relatively small compared with other tree species; Pine trees, for example, have a genome around 50 times larger. This makes the western balsam poplar ideal as a study object for the genetics and genomics of wood plants. It was the first tree species to be completely sequenced; its genome is only four times larger than that of the first fully sequenced plant, the thale cress ( Arabidopsis thaliana ). The number of chromosomes is 2n = 38.
swell
- Alan Mitchell, translated and edited by Gerd Krüssmann: The forest and park trees of Europe: An identification book for dendrologists and nature lovers . Paul Parey, Hamburg and Berlin 1975, ISBN 3-490-05918-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Populus trichocarpa at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
