Description: If left unpruned, Populus alba will form a large, suckering Deciduous tree with spreading branches and pale grey bark and can be used effectively as a windbreak. At Malverleys it is used as a cut-back plant to maintain the appearance and size of the foliage on young trees, and also to control the overall size. Ovate to rounded leaves are variable in shape and have pinnatifid to palmate lobing and wavy margins. The young stems and leaves are covered in white wool and if pollarded, this feature will be retained. If left to grow, the leaves will turn to dark green on the upper surface with the distinctive white wool retained on the undersides of the leaves.

Populus alba is Dioecious (male and female flowers are produced on different plants). Red flowers on male plants or green flowers on female plants are held in pendent catkins and produced in early spring. The female flowers will be followed by white fluffy seed in late summer.

The foliage will turn yellow in autumn before falling.