POPLAR BUDS ARE POINTY

Some broad-leaved trees are as easy to identify in winter as they are when in full leaf.    You've still got the shape of the tree, the bark, remains of fruits hanging on and, most helpfully, THE BUDS.

Here is the end of a branch on a hybrid black poplar.  Notice how the twigs turn up at the end.

Each twig terminates in a clustering row of large, pointed buds.

 Now go and find one.  Hybrid Black Poplars are very common but they are large spreading trees, quite a different shape from the narrow vertical Lombardy Poplars.

Lombardy poplars