 Growing to a height of some 30 metres, the bark of the black poplar is distinctively ridged and furrowed and has characteristic large burrs or bosses.When mature, the tree forms a huge dome of massive spreading branches which arch outwards.This spreading habit is dramatically different from the elongated shape of the Lombardy poplar ("Populus nigra" ‘Italica’) which, surprisingly, is a cultivated variety of the black poplar that was imported to Essex from Turin in 1758 and widely planted because of its unusual shape.