Weeds of Australia - Fact Sheet

Top Scientific Name Family Common Names Origin Naturalised Distribution Notes

Scientific Name

Populus alba L.

Family

Salicaceae

Common Names

abele, European white poplar, poplar, silver leafed poplar, silver poplar, silver-leaf poplar, silverleaf poplar, silver-leaved poplar, white poplar

Origin

Native to north-western Africa (i.e. northern Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), the Canary Islands, Europe (i.e. France, Spain, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Ukraine and western Russia), western Asia (i.e. Turkey, southern Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and western China.

Naturalised Distribution

Widely naturalised in southern Australia (i.e. in some parts of eastern New South Wales, in the ACT, in Victoria and Tasmania, in south-eastern South Australia, and in the coastal districts of south-western Western Australia). Also sparingly naturalised in the cooler sub-coastal districts of south-eastern Queensland.

Naturalised overseas in southern Africa, North America and New Zealand.

Notes

White poplar (Populus alba) is regarded as an environmental weed in the ACT, New South Wales, Victoria. South Australia and Western Australia. It spreads by suckers and can from dense thickets in gullies and along streams in the temperate regions of Australia.