When young, Balsam Poplar look like other Poplars (Populus) with their smooth greenish bark. It's the bronze tone of the leaves, the reddish brown of the twig and buds, and the grey hue of the green bark that set them apart. When mature the older bark turns dark grey with rough vertical ridges. A piece of this mature bark makes an excellent fishing float.

Medium-sized trees, the Balsam Poplar are like other Poplars in that they need full sunlight to grow, they can multiply by sending up suckers from the root system and they need both a male and a female tree to produce viable seeds.

Balsam Poplar are often found in pure stands; they grow best in moist rich gravel soils, especially near water. Balsam Poplar is North America's Northernmost hardwood tree, growing in scattered groves even on Alaska's Arctic slope. Despite its shallow root system it has proven itself useful for windbreaks on the Prairies.

Balsam Poplar can be distinguished by the sweet, spicy aroma of their buds in early spring, when they are most resinous and ready to be harvested. The buds are rich in salicin and have some of aspirin's pain-relieving effects. Chewed fresh, the buds have a very pungent clove-like flavour that lingers for hours in the mouth.

The buds are used internally for long standing coughs, subacute and chronic bronchitis, chronic catarrh, kidney and urinary problems, poor digestion, rheumatism, scurvy, leucorrhea, and as a stimulating tonic. The resin on and in the buds is not water soluble so a tincture must be made by putting an ounce or two of bruised buds into a pint of food-grade alcohol and letting it sit for two weeks. A teaspoon to a tablespoon (according to age) may be taken three or four times daily. An excellent cough syrup is made by adding 1/3 part honey to the mixture .

The buds are a vulnerary, and have long been used as a salve for burns, sunburns, wounds, arthritis sores, bedsores, skin diseases such as eczema, and as a kind of homemade 'Vick's Vapour Rub' rubbed inside the nostrils or on the chest to loosen a cold. As a nasal salve it is inhaled to relieve nasal congestion, since it is stimulating and invigorating to the tissues of the respiratory passages.

A handful of buds were traditionally boiled in deer or bear fat by the Indians; you can make a similar fragrant healing and soothing salve by simmering the buds with a cup of lard or pure vegetable shortening or coconut oil. Strain it and allow it to cool and set in suitable small jars. The buds can also be steeped in good quality vegetable oil ( olive oil has strong extractive qualities), and the oil added to massage oil for soothing pain-relieving benefits and a pleasant aroma.

Dried buds may be burned on charcoal or a hot stove as a purifying incense.

Gather the buds in February and March. Dry them in the shade before they sprout. They contain a yellow pigment essential oil, phenoglycosides (populin, salicin, tannin), flavones and albumen. They can be added to keep other ointments from going rancid, like paraffin.

Deer suet salve of Balsam Poplar has been known to be a very effective application for severe burns. When it is applied cold it is reputed to stop pain almost immediately. It is also applied to sprained and strained muscles.

The qualities of the inner bark are similar to those of the buds. The inner bark is soluble in boiling water, and so a tea can be made for colds, coughs, rheumatism gout, kidney and urinary troubles and lung troubles. The tea is also a stimulating tonic, a diuretic, an anti-scorbutic, febrifuge and a cathartic. Gather the inner bark from young branches in the spring before they sprout, and dry it quickly in the shade.

The leaves of the Balsam Poplar are also used as a febrifuge., anti-rheumatic arid diuretic, in the form of an infusion. Gather the leaves in May or June and dry them in the shade.

To prevent premature birth., or for excessive flowing (bleeding) during labour, one root each of Poplar and Balsam Poplar is steeped, not boiled, in a quart of water and this brew is drunk every hour.

Bisabolol has recently been discovered in the young shoots of Balsam Poplar. It is active against tubercle bacilli.

Balm of Gilead or 'Ba'am o' Gilly ((Populus gileadensis) is a variety of Balsam Poplar. A large sterile tree, it only reproduces by root suckers. It is distinguished by the hairiness of the leaf undersides, leaf stalks and twigs.

The wood of Balsam Poplar low in strength, is used for plywood, pulp and excelsior.

In late June the female trees put forth an incredible quantity of seeds that are borne on the wind by long white hairs. The illusion of a summer snow storm is created in the seeds' attempt to find a new area with no trees and full sunlight to live in. These seeds the buds and the twigs are important foods for numerous birds and mammals.