This tree has male and female sexes: the female tree is a nuisance that everyone cuts down, while the male tree is one everyone scrambles to get.

In this season, many people must be quite frustrated by the poplar catkins drifting in the air, with allergies, rhinitis, and even asthma attacks. This poplar is a major nuisance tree in both rural and urban areas, and many cities have started to manage poplars by injecting a kind of "birth control shot" into their trunks so they no longer shed catkins. In rural areas it is much simpler: many farmers troubled beyond endurance simply cut down the poplars they planted and sell them, cutting down every one they see, to avoid harming their neighbors and making everyone's breathing uncomfortable. But whether in rural or urban areas, what is dealt with is the female poplar; the male poplar has a much higher status, especially in spring, when it is treated as a treasure that everyone scrambles to get.

The main reason the female poplar sheds catkins is that it relies on wind to spread its seeds. If you look carefully, you will find seeds the size of a sesame grain one by one among the poplar catkins flying all over the sky; this is a biological characteristic that cannot be avoided. The male poplar is different from the female poplar: it only blooms and does not bear fruit, and does not affect the environment. If one insists on naming its shortcomings, it is that it can pollinate the female poplar; apart from this point, everything else about it is very good. The male poplar is a very good material for construction, furniture, and papermaking, with high economic value. At the same time, its flowers and tender leaves can also be eaten and are an excellent-tasting wild vegetable.

The flowers of the male poplar are a very popular wild vegetable in the north. They are recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica," which says they have the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, and benefiting the liver and brightening the eyes. They can both be used as medicine and eaten, and are a memory of many people's childhood. The spring wild vegetable most eagerly awaited in childhood was poplar flowers. People from Shandong call it "wushiwumang" (nothing to do); as soon as the wind blows, they fall down, and everyone scrambles to pick them up. After filling a basket, they take them home and have the parents steam them to eat. When steaming, they must be mixed with cornmeal; that is what makes them fragrant, with a fresh and sweet taste, even better than meat.

Not all male poplar flowers can be eaten. The tall fast-growing poplars planted nowadays cannot be eaten; only the male flowers of a type of black-barked poplar in rural areas can be eaten. Local people call it the stupid poplar, the same meaning as today's stupid eggs and stupid duck eggs, representing pure local goods. It is hard to find this delicacy in the city, and young people nowadays are not keen on eating this stuff either; only the older generation treats it as a treasure.

Reader friends, have you ever eaten the flowers of the male poplar?