The natural variation of Populus euphratica and Populus pruinosa refers to the characteristics of the leaf shape similar to Populus euphratica and Populus pruinosa, but different from the typical leaves of Populus euphratica and Populus pruinosa. There are a large number of natural variant individuals in Populus euphratica and Populus pruinosa pure forest, Populus euphratica and Populus pruinosa mixed forest and artificial forest.

At present, 36 natural variant germplasm resources of Xinjiang have been collected, distributed in 21 counties (cities , districts) of 10 prefectures (states and cities) in including Aksu region, Kashgar region, Hami City, Karamay City, Tacheng region, Altay region, Bayingoleng Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture and Urumqi City. Among the 36 natural germplasm resources, there were 17 ancient tree germplasm resources, 17 wild natural germplasm resources, and 2 cultivated germplasm resources.

The natural variant germplasm resources are distributed in the range of E 76°42′29.10″~85°32′, N 37°07′~41°12′ and the altitude 745m~1398m in southern Xinjiang. It is distributed in the range of E 83°42′3.50″~95°30′49.46″, N 42°59′92.20″~47°15′ 32.30″ and altitude 250m~972m in northern Xinjiang.