Why poplars were planted in the U.S.S.R. en masse: they were in every yard

Today, poplars can be seen in any city in Ukraine. They began to be planted on purpose back in the 1950s during the Soviet era.

Usually, when it comes to poplars, the first association is fluff. It can cause a lot of inconvenience, especially for allergy sufferers, so the question arises as to why the Soviet government planted these trees en masse. To get the answer, read the article from OBOZ.UA.

After World War II, when countries were recovering from the ruins, it was necessary to rebuild a huge number of cities and towns. In parallel with the reconstruction, a greening program was underway. As part of it, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the mass planting of poplars.

In fact, poplar is a very useful tree. It is a kind of natural filter because it absorbs heavy elements from the air that remain after factory and car emissions. What is also important, it does not affect the plants negatively, so they grow well in large cities and industrial centers. In general, poplars are not whimsical trees at all. They do not require any additional care in urban areas.

In addition, poplars produce extremely large amounts of oxygen. In just 24 hours, one tree can provide oxygen for four adults.

Finally, the decisive factors in favor of poplars were the fact that they have a specific elongated shape, which allows trees to be planted very close to each other. They also grow quickly and live up to 100 years.

The main disadvantage of poplars is their fluff. It is flammable, impedes visibility on the roads, and creates incredible inconvenience for people with allergies.

It is worth noting that poplars have gender differences. In particular, only female poplars bloom, so at first the Soviet government planned to plant only male trees.

In this way, cities could be greened and the air quality improved without suffering from fluff every summer. However, it would have taken too much time to select the right seedlings, so this idea was abandoned.

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