Trees to 30 m tall; bark yellowish green to grayish white, smooth; crown large and rounded. Branchlets grayish brown, terete, glabrous, yellowish brown and pubescent when young. Buds long ovoid or ovoid-globose, pubigerous. Petiole laterally flattened, ca. as long as or shorter than blade; leaf blade ovate or suborbicular, 3-8 × 2-7 cm, abaxially greenish, tomentose when leaves unfold, adaxially dull green, pilose at first, base truncate, rounded or broadly cuneate, margin coarsely dentate, teeth sinuous or not, acute and incurved. Male catkin ca. 5 cm; rachis with dense hairs. Female catkin 3-5 cm; rachis pubescent. Female flower: ovary ovoid, glabrous; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule 2-valved, shortly stipitate. Fl. Apr, fr. May-Jun. 2n = 38*, 40*, 46*, 57*.

A natural hybrid between Populus davidiana and P. tomentosa.

* Along rivers, valleys, alluvial deposits; 700-1600 m. Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi; often planted elsewhere