The Lombardy Popular is a columnar cultivar of the Black Popular that arose in the 1600's in the Lombardy District of Italy and was introduced to cultivation in the US in the 1780's. It used to be somewhat commonly sold at nurseries in the Midwest and Eastern US in the 1950's into the 1970's, mostly used as a fast tree screen in a straight row. However, a canker disease, a fungus that attacks bark, Cryptodiaporthe (Dothichiza) populea, strongly attacks this tree in humid regions and kills it when it is about 15 to 20 years old, so it was largely discontinued. It does much better back in southern Europe and in the drier western US. Some cheap mail order nurseries still offer it in the US. It is a male clone propagated by stem cuttings.

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