ABSTRACT
According to Greek legend, Hercules was wearing a crown of poplar twigs when he returned from Hades after vanquishing Cerberus, the guardian hell-hound (Baumann 1993). The Greek tree forming his crown was the white poplar (Populus alba), and the twocolored leaves symbolized respect for the Chthonian deities. The dark side of the leaf represented the Underworld, and the light side the living. This tree became the arbor populi (tree of the people) to the Romans, and it was used to decorate public places such as the Piazza Poppolo in Rome (Hocking 1997). Just how much that Greek association with the Underworld affected different cultures is partly indicated by the dominance of their word in languages throughout Western Europe. The species is now cultivated as far north as Norway and Sweden where it is known as sølvpoppel (silver poplar).
