Scientific Name	Populus trichocarpa
Common Name	western balsam poplar;
Taxonomy ID	3694
Lineage	cellular organisms > Viridiplantae > Streptophyta > Streptophytina > Embryophyta > Tracheophyta > Euphyllophyta > Spermatophyta > Magnoliophyta > Mesangiospermae > eudicotyledons > Gunneridae > Pentapetalae > rosids > fabids > Malpighiales > Salicaceae > Saliceae > Populus
External Links	NCBI; EBI; JGI; PLAZA; Specialized Database
Representative Assembly	Poptr2_0	GCF_000002775.3	DNA GFF RNA Protein

Description:

Populus trichocarpa, the black cottonwood, western balsam-poplar or California poplar, is a deciduous broadleaf tree species native to western North America. It is used for timber, and is notable as a model organism in plant biology. The genus Populus includes several fast growing trees like poplars, cottonwoods and aspens. It has been chosen as a model plant for tree genomics because of its small genome size, rapid juvenile growth, ease of clonal propagation, high-throughput transformation and regeneration, and availability of extensive genetic maps. It consists of more than 35 species distributed mainly in the Northern hemisphere. They have a small genome of about 550 Mb, about the size of the rice genome and four times larger than the Arabidopsis genome. They are considered paleopolyploids with all species having a haploid chromosome number of 19. Populus trichocarpa is a hardy, fast growing tree that can be propagated vegetatively.  Its full genome sequence was published in 2006. Populus genome is the first tree genome to be sequenced. Understanding this tree genome will greatly aid our understanding of growth and development processes in organisms that live for thousands of years.