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Poplar

Populus sp. (accepted: Populus) · Salicaceae · all Populus records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: 1 condition stated in cited fire-evidence rows.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 6 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: British Columbia; California; Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa; Fremont County, Wyoming; Global; Greece; Michigan / Great Lakes; Montana / Northern Rockies; Nevada / Great Basin; Oregon; South Carolina; Tasmania, Australia; Utah / Intermountain West; Yavapai County, Arizona; western WA
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

Typed publication scope: 9 scopes across 9 cited fire sources

Fremont County Firewise Plant List · Official scoped edition
- Fremont County (WY footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-02-25
  The source identifies itself as the Fremont County Firewise Plant List. FireApproved publishes its 92 exact source owners as Fremont County regional context. No methodology, current county endorsement, statewide Wyoming scope, or site-specific suitability is inferred.
Firewise Plants for the Puget Sound Basin · Official scoped edition
- Puget Sound Basin (WA footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-01-01
  King County's current wildfire page links this list for the Puget Sound Basin. FireApproved publishes 82 exact source owners as basin context, not statewide Washington guidance or a site-specific recommendation.
Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants · Official scoped edition
- CA; partial normalized coverage · 1997-07-01
  The UC Forest Products Laboratory says the guide covers properties of common California landscaping plants and was prepared for California fire agencies. FireApproved publishes 130 exact owners at historical California publication scope. The report is a 1997 compilation, not a current endorsement, site rating, or independent test of every row.
Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) · Official scoped edition
- MI; partial normalized coverage · 2007-01-01
  Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
Fire-Resistant Plants for Montana Landscapes (MontGuide MT200101AG) · Official scoped edition
- MT; partial normalized coverage · 2022-04-01
  The April 2022 MontGuide explicitly presents fire-resistant species adapted to Montana. FireApproved publishes 92 exact plant records from the source while retaining excluded genus, family, and unresolved rows; the guide itself says not every listed species grows in every part of the state.
Landscaping Can Be Attractive & FIREWISE (Fire Smart Plant List for SC) · Official scoped edition
- SC; partial normalized coverage
  South Carolina Forestry Commission publishes this explicitly as its Fire Smart Plant List for South Carolina. FireApproved publishes 63 exact genus owners from 72 unique common-name labels; unsafe common-name mappings and duplicates are not broadened. The brochure calls the list non-inclusive and does not establish species-level or site-specific suitability.
A Compilation of Good Plant Choices for Nevada's High Fire Hazard Areas (SP-05-16) · Official scoped edition
- NV; partial normalized coverage · 2005-01-01
  University of Nevada Cooperative Extension compiled plants suited to Nevada climate zones and reported favorably by at least two upstream firewise lists. FireApproved publishes 126 exact source owners at Nevada publication scope. The source explicitly makes no independent flammability determination, so these rows remain corroborative.
Firewise Plants for Utah Landscapes (NR/FF/002) · Official scoped edition
- UT; partial normalized coverage · 2005-02-01
  Utah State University Extension states that this fact sheet selects examples for Utah landscapes and that they require proper placement and maintenance. FireApproved publishes 83 exact source owners at Utah publication scope. The table is not a site-specific planting clearance.
Fire-Resistant and Fire-Prone Plants Common to Yavapai County (Bulletin 34) · Official scoped edition
- Yavapai County (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2025-03-14
  University of Arizona Cooperative Extension authors Bulletin 34 for Yavapai County. FireApproved publishes 198 exact source owners from its resistant and prone tables and keeps the county boundary visible. County publication scope is regional Arizona context, never statewide scope.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: No state distribution is normalized.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness: No hardiness value is normalized.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

Fire-resistant. Recommended by 5 of 6 independent primary-evidence lineages; the Tasmania Fire Service list dissents. The majority direction lists it — the dissent is shown in full below, never averaged away.

▲ Firewise Plants for Utah Landscapes ▲ Fire-Resistant Plants for Montana Landscapes ▲ Firewise Plants for the Puget Sound Basin ▲ Michigan's E2948 list ▲ Fire-Resistant Plants for Oregon Home Landscapes ▼ the Tasmania Fire Service list ◆ Time to extinguish the exotic flame: Lessons from the 202… · fire-tested

Computed class: Fire-resistant (majority) — derived from the cited evidence by a published rule, never hand-assigned. Each chip above is one independent primary-evidence lineage and its direction. No plant is fireproof; condition and placement govern. Zone 0 is hardscape regardless.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Poplar (Populus sp.) — Photo: (c) Jared Shorma, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: tree
Region: British Columbia, Canada; EE. UU.; Tasmania, Australia
Rated in: British Columbia; California; Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa; Fremont County, Wyoming +11
Family: Salicaceae
Evidence: 25 cited sources

Conditions in the fire evidence

These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.

green: Fire-Resistant Plants for Oregon Home Landscapes evidence row

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Fire Resisting Garden Plants for the Urban Fringe and Rur…: remove from the Building Protection Zone; avoid in the Fuel Modified Zone [Texas Building Protection Zone] (with its avoid rating)
Fire-Resistant Plants for Oregon Home Landscapes: Oregon [osu-frn6-oregon-regions] (with its recommendation)
Time to extinguish the exotic flame: Lessons from the 202…: Urban zone; Table 1 and deposited raw workbook [macalister-2025-leaf-flammability] (mid-scale rating)
Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interf…: Chapter 4, Landscape Vegetation Database [ucfpl-1997] (with its recommendation)
Landscaping Can Be Attractive & FIREWISE: TREES [SCFC Fire Smart plant-form sections] (with its recommendation)
Κανονισμός Πυροπροστασίας Ακινήτων εντός ή πλησίον δασικώ…: section 5.4.2, paragraph following Table 2δi [greece-2023-fire-resistant-examples] (with its recommendation)

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (1)

Fire Resisting Garden Plants for the Urban Fringe and Rural Areas — Tasmania Fire Service (Chladil & Sheridan; photographs Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens) · 2017 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: utas-tree

“High Flammability”

Mid-scale / conditional (1)

Time to extinguish the exotic flame: Lessons from the 2021 Cape Town fire — South African Journal of Botany / University of Cape Town · South African Journal of Botany 184:1163-1173 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: independent (UCT post-Table-Mountain-fire study)

“Partially burned”

Official-workbook means across 50 leaf trials: fresh ignition 2.065 s, fresh sustainability 16.178 s, dry ignition 1.285 s, dry sustainability 11.312 s, and combustibility 13.345 mg DW s-1. Published Table 1 observation for the 2021 fire: Partially burned.

Listed without a rating (11)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

11 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 20” · score 20 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17799; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 21” · score 21 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17800; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 23” · score 23 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17801; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 19” · score 19 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17802; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 22” · score 22 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17803; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 25” · score 25 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17804; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 19” · score 19 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17805; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 19” · score 19 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17806; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 12” · score 12 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17807; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 11” · score 11 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17808; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.
- “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 9” · score 9 (FLAMITS — rate of burning spread (cm/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 17809; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device outdoor wind tunnel; site Catchpole1998-1; sampling ND. Primary study Catchpole1998: Catchpole, W.R., Catchpole, E.A., Butler, B.W., Rothermel, R.C., Morris, G.A., & Latham, D. J. (1998) Rate of spread of free-burning fires in woody fuels in a wind tunnel. Combustion Science and Technology, 131, 137.

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Populus sp. (Poplar). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/populus/. Last verified 2026-08-23.