Closeup of Euphrates poplar male flowers in March, Deir Ezzor, Syria.
TWO DIFFERENT POPLARS ARE MENtioned in the scriptures: the white poplar (Populus alba) and the Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica). White poplar is familiar in North America and Europe because it is often planted as a rapidly growing shade tree. The younger portions of the stem are usually a bright white; leaves are covered with dense hairs beneath, but the upper surface is dark green. In the Middle East, the white poplar is often common along rivers and is frequent near the Banias Spring, one of the sources of the Jordan; it is also widely planted. White poplar has been introduced to North America and is commonly planted, though the wood is brittle and the tree is short lived.
This tree may be the one referred to in the genetics experiment of Jacob: “Then Jacob took some fresh branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled off strips of bark, making white streaks on them. Then he placed these peeled branches in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, for that was where they mated. And when they mated in front of the white-streaked branches, they gave birth to young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted. Jacob separated those lambs from Laban’s flock. And at mating time he turned the flock to face Laban’s animals that were streaked or black. This is how he built his own flock instead of increasing Laban’s” (Genesis 30:37–40, NLT).
Grove of white poplar, Populus alba, at Banias, northern Israel.
Male flowers on a large Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica) tree in March, on the Euphrates River, Deir Ezzor, Syria. Like other poplars, Euphrates poplar has distinctive hanging masses of unisexual flowers in the early spring.
The second poplar is the Euphrates poplar, Populus euphratica, which forms a conspicuous part of the vegetation of the lower Jordan River. Along the Euphrates River, P. euphratica is also a characteristic tree. Like white poplar and other poplar species, this tree is clonal: underground it grows extensive rhizomes, from which sprout new little trees. Also, you can break off a branch, stick it in the ground, and a tree will grow. Branches that drop from the tree can be carried some distance by the river, and that branch can take root on a far sandbar or bank, forming a new tree.
In common with some other species of poplar, the leaves are polymorphic: different leaves on the same tree or even the same branch may have strikingly different shapes.
The bark of Populus euphratica, unlike its close relative the white poplar, is not white, and the leaves do not have a white undersurface. It can tolerate relatively high salinity. Common in many parts of the Middle East, Euphrates poplar is assumed to be intended in Psalm 137:1–3 (KJV), where the captives hung their harps on the “willows” of Babylon (but see NIV, which uses poplar rather than willow). The commonly planted “weeping willow” was given its name, Salix babylonica, after this portion of scripture. However, it is native to China and did not grow in Bible lands. Like so many other Bible plants, the wording used to describe poplars as “willows” in the King James Version leads to a misrepresentation of the text. While the image of hanging the harps is figurative, the thin branches of willows would not support harps.
