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Family Salicaceae — Part 1

Genus POPULUS

QUICK-GROWING trees with angled or round twigs, set with scaly buds, soft, light wood, and bitter bark. Leaves deciduous, simple, alternate, usually broad, on long petioles. Flowers dioecious, both kinds in crowded, pendulous catkins; each flower subtended by a bract with deeply cut, hairy margin. Fruit pendulous racemes of 2 to 4-valved pods; seeds minute, with dense, silky float attached.