Question: Can you ID Populus to species just by the leaf? I'm trying to ID the species of Aphid, and I'm …
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Question
Can you ID Populus to species just by the leaf? I'm trying to ID the species of Aphid, and I'm told each of the 20 species in the genus is specific to a specific Poplar. This is at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, NH. The tree is a young sapling, and the leaf looks most like P, deltoides (not documented in the county) and P. tremuloides, which is. I lean toward tremuloides, which is more common evidently, and seems to have leaf veins of a lighter color.
Answer
Dear chaffeemonell, good afternoon. I don't think this is Populus deltoides, that species has a prominent white border around the margin of the leaf lacking in this specimen. It looks more like a stump sprout leaf of Populus tremuloides, though it is sometimes hard to be confident with such leaves because they differ in shape and size for the normal leaves. Best wishes.
