Trees to 20 m tall; bark grayish green at first, becoming dark gray on old trees; crown broadly ovoid. Branchlets reddish brown, subterete or slightly angled, glabrous. Buds brown, long ovoid, viscid, apex acuminate. Leaves on fruiting branchlets with petiole 4-4.5 cm; leaf blade usually suborbicular, rarely ovate-orbicular or ovate, broadest at or sometimes above middle, ca. as long as broad, pilose, abaxially greenish, glabrous, adaxially green, pubescent along veins, both surfaces pubescent along veins when young, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, entire proximally, ciliate. Sprouts with petiole terete, 1.5-2.3 cm; leaf blade obovate-orbicular, 5-6.5 × 3-4.2 cm, broadest above middle, base broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, densely ciliate, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Male catkin ca. 6 cm; rachis pilose; bracts yellowish brown with brown lobes. Male flower: stamens 15. Female catkin ca. 9 cm, 10-12 cm in fruit; rachis glabrous or pilose at base; flowers shortly stipitate. Capsule glabrous, 2(or 3)-valved. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun.

Probably a hybrid between Populus × berolinensis and P. simonii. Resembling the former in its grayish green, smooth bark, furrowed only at base of old trunks, and caducous leaves; resembling the latter in its branchlet color, viscid buds, angled sprouts, and shape of leaves of sprouts. Similar also to P. cathayana but leaf blade broadly cuneate basally, and to P. pseudosimonii but bark greenish; 1-year-old branchlets reddish; buds more viscid; leaf blade of sprouts obovate, caducous.

Both varieties are important for reforestation.

* Heilongjiang, N Liaoning