This White or Silver Popular is native to most of Europe and to western Asia. I've seen it occasionally planted or escaped from cultivation around northeast Illinois and around Philadelphia, PA. It is a pretty and a large tree with smooth white bark, and the undersides of the leaves are silver. It is fast growing, of course, about 2 to 4 feet/year. It often sends ground suckers out of the ground and creates a colony. (For aspens to do that, it can be nice or not so bad since aspens are smaller and more upright.) It is weak-wooded and drops lots of twigs and branches. I prefer native popular species that really provide food for beneficial insects, especially caterpillars, that feed birds and other animals.

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