✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Temperate hardwood · Timber & pulp

Poplar

Populus deltoides · Salicaceae

Poplar is a warm-temperate tree that grows best in the 14–30°C range with 1200–2500 mm of rain, cropping over a 240–330-day season.

Optimal temp
14–30 °C
Annual rain
1200–2500 mm
Max altitude
2,100 m
Cold limit
8°C
Growing cycle
240–330 d
Climate-fit land
28 % world

How it grows

Poplar
Photo: Cherubino · Public domain
Poplar
Photo: Mattia480ac · CC BY-SA 3.0
🌳 On a tree

Poplar grows on a tree — the fruit ripens above the ground, up in the canopy.

Where Earth's climate suits poplar

Global climatic suitability map for Poplar
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
28% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production
FAOSTAT reports this crop only inside a broader category, so standalone country tonnage is not shown.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
Brazil
United States of America
China
Dem. Rep. Congo
India
Australia
Canada
Argentina
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 14–30°C · tolerates 8–34°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 1200–2500 mm · tolerates 600–3000 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 4.5–8.0 · tolerates 4.5–8.0
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±54° · soil pH 4.5–8.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 240–330 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Cold & frost. A frost-sensitive crop: temperatures near or below freezing damage or kill it, so it is confined to frost-free seasons and warm climates.
  • Wet & disease. A thirsty crop that needs abundant rain; in the wettest climates, humidity brings fungal disease pressure.

Related crops