Populus pruinosa


Populus pruinosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Salicaceae, native to Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Xinjiang in China. A halophytic tree usually tall, but occasionally reaching, it is often found growing in basins. Its bark is grayish-yellow, its branchlets and young sprouts are densely tomentulose and gray in color, and its leaves are tomentulose and grayish-blue. The genome of this species has been sequenced revealing that duplicated genes and the expansion of certain gene families in Populus pruinosa contributed to adaptation to extreme desert environments characterized by high salinity and drought.