 |
return to category |
 |
|
| © Photo Copyright All rights reserved Click for further information |
|
Populus balsamifera
| This medium to large deciduous tree has a straight, cylindrical trunk and an open crown of a few stout ascending branches. It grows to height of 30 metres with a diameter of 10 – 60 cm. The smooth bark is light grey to grey brown, growing thick and furrowed with age. In the spring you find its buds sticky, resinous, and strongly aromatic. Its leaves turn yellow in the fall. You’ll find the Balsam Poplar in the Algonquin Highlands where there is moist sites, including river floodplains, stream and lake shores, moist depressions, and swamps, but sometimes even in drier sites. This fast growing tree allows it to establish and dominate for up to 100 years, if it is free from becoming shaded out by other hardwoods or conifers. Pioneers used the ashes of the Balsam Poplar to make a cleanser for hair and buckskin clothing. It is eaten by moose, deer, and snowshoe hare in small amounts, with moose stripping bark in times of winter food shortage. Often used by beavers for food and building materials. Native Americans used resin from its buds to treat sore throats, coughs, lung pain, and rheumatism. An ointment, Balm of Gilead, was made from the winter buds to relieve congestion. It is harvested by man for pulpwood, lumber and veneer, and high-grade paper and particle board. Also used to make boxes and crates. The short, fine fibres of the Balsam Poplar are used in tissues and other paper products. Seed production of this tree begins at about 8 years, with a good crop every year thereafter. Seeds are dispersed by wind before its leaves are completely emerged; within 200 metres of the parent tree. |
|
|
||||
