White Poplar (popolus alba)

The white poplar is another tree very common in the Italian peninsula, it grows and develops easily even at high altitudes of the mountains. Very characteristic is its bark with bands of diamond shaped. It prefers rich areas of water and then plains and rivers. Its use today is more ornamental than anything else, or for economic reasons, it is also used in carpentry. In the field of violin making despite its very elastic fiber is not exactly easy to work, lends itself very well to the construction of musical instruments from the sound warm and rich in harmonics. There exists a variant which is commonly called “gattice” or “gatterino”; it is in fact a hybrid formed by natural pollination of male of aspen (or populus tremula) on white poplar. This happens when the two species coexist in the same area. This new variety has approximately the same characteristics of the white one.