Poplar is a favorite choice for painted woodwork because of its affordability, durability, and easy workability. It is a coarse-grained softwood that is often streaked with a greenish color heartwood. With exposure to light, the green heartwood will have a tendency to darken to more of a brown color. Like all trees, poplar sometimes soaks up minerals from the ground. When this happens, a variety of colors may streak the wood, including blues, purples, reds, and yellows. Poplar can look very attractive stained when selecting a stain color that reduces the natural color variation of the wood.